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JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



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JITYENTUS MUNDI 



THE GODS AND MEN 

OF THE HEROIC AGE 




* 



BY THE RIGHT HONORABLE 



WILLIAM EWART GLADSTONE 

- \ MP, R X^S^faN: 



BOSTON 

LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 
1869 



Note. — In this edition, all the references to the poems of Homer 
have been carefully verified, and nearly two hundred errors cor- 
rected. No alteration has been made in the text, beyond the correction 
of a few misprints. 

3y Transfer 

NOV 20 mi 



CAMBRIDGE : 
PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON. 



PREFACE. 



In this work, which is mainly the produce of the 
two Recesses of 1867 and 1868, 1 have endeavored to 
embody the greater part of the results at which I 
arrived in the 6 Studies on Homer and the Homeric 
Age,' 185?. Those results, however, are considerably 
modified in the Ethnological, and in the Mythological, 
portions of the inquiry. The chief source of modifica- 
tion in the former has been that a further prosecution 
of the subject with respect to the Phoenicians has 
brought cut much more clearly and fully what I had 
only ventured to suspect or hint at, and gives them, 
if I am right, a highly influential function in forming 
the Greek nation. A fuller view of this element in 
its composition naturally acts in an important manner 
upon any estimate of Pelasgians and Hellenes re- 
spectively. 

This Phoenician influence reaches far into the 
sphere of the mythology ; and tends, as I think, 
greatly to clear the views we may reasonably take of 
that curious and interesting subject. 



vi 



PEEFACE. 



I have also greatly profited by the laborious and 
original treatise of Dr. Hahn, on Albanian Archae- 
ology and Antiquities, as well as manners ; which, 
although published at Jena in 1854, was scarcely, if 
at all, known in this country in 1858. 

But, further, I have endeavored to avoid a certain 
crudity of expression in some sections of the ' Olym- 
pos,' which led to misconceptions of my meaning with 
respect to the action of tradition (especially of sacred 
or Hebrew tradition) and invention respectively, in the 
genesis of the Greek mythological system. 

In dealing with the Third portion of the ' Studies,' 
called Aoidos, I have contracted a great deal, but 
added and altered little. 

The immediate purpose of the former work was to 
draw out of the text of Homer, by a minute investiga- 
tion of particulars, the results that it appeared to me 
to justify. Many of them were more or less new, and 
the process of inquiry was therefore exhibited in 
great, perhaps in excessive or wearisome, detail. I 
have now felt warranted to give a larger space to 
deduction, and a smaller one to minute particulars of 
inquiry, in a work which aims at offering some prac- 
tical assistance to Homeric study in our Schools and 
Universities, and even at conveying a partial knowl- 
edge of this subject to persons who are not habitual 
students. Of what appeared directly useful for this 
end, I have consciously omitted nothing. 



PREFACE. 



vii 



I am anxious, then, to commend to inquirers, and 
to readers generally, conclusions from the Homeric 
Poems, which appear to me to be of great interest, 
with reference to the general history of human culture, 
and, in connection therewith, of the Providential gov- 
ernment of the world. But I am much more anxious 
to encourage and facilitate the access of educated 
persons to the actual contents of the text. The 
amount and variety of these contents have not even 
yet been fully appreciated. The delight received from 
the Poems has possibly had some influence in dis- 
posing the generality of readers to rest satisfied with 
their enjoyment. The doubts cast upon their origin 
must have assisted in producing and fostering a vague 
instinctive indisposition to laborious examination. 
The very splendor of the poetry dazzles the eye as 
with whole sheets of light, and may often seem almost 
to give to analysis the character of vulgarity or im- 
pertinence. 

My main object, then, in this, and in the former 
work, has been to encourage, or, if I may so say, to 
provoke, the close textual study of the Poet, as the 
condition of real progress in what is called the Homeric 
question, and as a substitute for that loose and second- 
hand method, not yet wholly out of vogue in this 
country, which seeks for information about Homer 
anywhere rather than in Homer himself. 

In further prosecution of this purpose, I have begun, 



viii 



PREFACE. 



and carried forward at such intervals as I could make 
my own, another task. With patient toil, which 
applied to most authors would have been drudgery, I 
have tried to draw out, and to arrange in the most 
accessible form, resembling that of a Dictionary, what 
may be termed the body, or earthy and tangible part, 
of the contents of Homer. To a dissection of such a 
kind, the ethereal spirit cannot be submitted. This 
analysis will be separately published, so soon as other 
calls upon my time may permit. It must not be 
supposed that so homely a production aspires to 
exhibit Homer as a poet. Yet it exhibits him as a 
chronicler and as an observer ; it helps' to give an 
idea of his power by showing some part at least of the 
copious materials with which he executed his great 
synthesis, the first, and also the best, composition of 
an Age, the most perfect ' form and body of a time,' 
that ever has been achieved by the hand of man. 

Like Coloner Mure, I am convinced that the one 
thing wanted in order to a full solution of what is 
called the Homeric question is knowledge of the text. 
In an aggregate of 27,000 lines, as full of infinitely 
varied matter (to use a familiar phrase) as an egg is 
full of meat, this is not so commonplace an accom- 
plishment as might at first sight be supposed. I 
have striven to attain it ; yet, as I know, with very 
partial success. And I do not hesitate to say, with 
the productions of some recent writers and critics on 



PREFACE. 



the Poet in my mind, that the reading public ought to 
be very wary in accepting unverified statements of 
what is or is not in Homer. I eschew the invidious 
task of illustrating this proposition from the pages of 
others : possibly it might receive some illustration 
from my own. 

I have felt great embarrassment, in common I 
suppose with many more, in consequence of the 
unsettled and transitionary state of our rules and 
practice with respect to Greek names, and to the 
Latin forms of them. 

Upon the whole, not without misgiving, but not 
without consideration, I have acted upon the belief 
that we cannot permanently fall back into the system ' 
which we were content until half a century ago to 
follow, and which Mr. Mitford and Mr. Grote assailed 
in common ; that we cannot well stand where we are ; 
and that we should, if possible, in this as in all 
matters, try to make preparation for the future, and 
make approaches at least towards a durable system. 

First, then, I follow many high authorities in adopt- 
ing generally the names of the Greek deities and 
mythological personages, instead of the Latin ones. 

Secondly, with respect to names which have in no 
way become familiar to our ears or been domesticated 
in the English tongue, instead of the Latin forms and 
terminations, I adopt commonly the Greek ; and say 
Iasos, Acrisios, Eurumachos, instead of Iasus, Acri- 



X 



PREFACE. 



sius, Eurymachus : as also Achaioi, Hippemolgoi, 
Lotophagoi, Phaiakes, instead of Achaians, Hippe- 
molgi, Lotophagi, Phasacians. 

But I have usually followed the old custom in cases 
where Greek words have been, so to speak, translated, 
so that the English ear has become thoroughly accus- 
tomed to the rendering, whether it be effected by the 
Latin form, as Cyprus for Kvtzqoq, or by an English 
one, as Ehodes for Bliodos. 

Yet a case like the first of these exhibits the prac- 
tical mischief of a somewhat degenerate system ; for 
the name Kupros would, more readily than Cyprus, 
have suggested the fact, that copper owes its name to 
that island, which first afforded to Europe and the 
Mediterranean a plentiful supply of so primitive and 
important a metal. In this matter of names I am 
less consistent than Mr. Grote ; and less bold, for I 
have not the same title to expect obedience. I can 
only say that my practice is accommodated, as far as 
I am able, to a state of transition, and that I have no 
doubt it is open to criticism in detail, even from those 
who may accept the general rule. 

Lastly, I have in many cases written a Greek word 
in Eoman type. I know not whether it will or will 
not, at some time, be found practicable to serve the 
purposes of all languages by one and the same char- 
acter. But the general knowledge of the relationship 
of tongues, and of particular languages, is increasing ; 



PREFACE. 



xi 



and it may be both • of interest and of use to the 
English reader, though unacquainted with Greek, to 
know the form and body of the words discussed in 
the text, when this advantage can be given without 
seriously distorting the words themselves. 

Hawarden, North Wales, 
October, 1868. 



» 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Introduction. 

PAGE 

Popular appreciation of the Homeric works 1 

Viewed too much through later traditions 1 

The Author unknown as a Person 2 

Date at which he lived 3 

Place of his birth and residence 6 

The poetry of Homer historic . 7 

Theurgy of the Poems self-consistent 9 

Important internal evidence as to the historic character of the 

Poems 10 

Uncertainty respecting them 11 

The 'Hymns' 12 

Arguments of those who support a^dual authorship discussed . . 14 

Iliad and Odyssey compared 17 

Text of the Poems discussed 18-26 

Comparative antiquity of Homer and Hesiod 26 

Evidence of Homer in relation to his age 28 

Discrepancy between Homeric and Post-Homeric tradition . . 29 

Conclusion concerning the Text of the Poet 30 

CHAPTER II. 

The Three Great Appellatives. 

The ' Greeks ' of the Troica were Achaians . 32 

Pre-Hellenic races — Pelasgoi 32 

Designations of the Greeks of the Iliad 33 



Xiv CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Instances of chronological succession of Homeric names ... 34 

' Argeioi ' used as a national designation and in a local sense . . 35 

The Danaoi . 36 

Derivation of Homeric national or tribal names 37 

Homer's unwilling testimony to the foreign origin of Greek 

Houses 38 

Genealogy of the race of Danaos 40 

Post-Homeric tradition with regard to Danaos 41 

Conclusions as to the Danaoi 42 

Argeioi 42 

Local use of the word 43 

Poetic and archaic uses of it 44 

Application of the territorial name Argos 45 

Common term in three distinct territorial names 50 

Four uses of in Homer 52 

Derivation of Homeric names of countries and places .... 53 

Uses of the word ' argos ' 54 

The derivative Argeioi 55 

This name belongs properly to the commonality 59 

The third Appellative : Achaioi 60 

Epithets applied to the name Achaioi 62 

Force of the word ' dios ' 63 

Instances of the use of the appellative Achaioi 64 

The Myrmidons 66 

Epithet ' Panachaioi ' 70 

Conclusion respecting the use of the Three Appellatives ... 71 

CHAPTER III. 
The Pelasgoi. 

Classification of the Homeric testimony concerning the Pelasgoi 73 

Wide extension of the Pelasgoi 73 

' Pelasgic Zeus ' 74 

Thessaly a Palasgic country 74 

Thracians 76 

Kaukones 76 

Epithets given to the Pelasgians . . . 76 

The Larisse of Homer 77 

Other heads of Homeric evidence concerning the Pelasgoi ... 78 

Connection between Arcadians and Pelasgoi 79 



CONTENTS. XV 

PAGE 

The Ionians 81 

Local, not personal, relation between Athene and Athens ... 83 

Erectheus probably a Pelasgian 84 

Evidence as to the Pelasgian character of Attica in early times 

(Ionians) 85 

Pelasgian element in Thessaly 87 

' Iason Argos ' 88 

Marks of a Pelasgian character in the population of Crete ... 89 

The Five Races domesticated in Greece . . . . 90 

Eteocretes and Kudones 90 

TheLeleges. 91 

Pelasgian occupation of Epiros 92 

Etymology of the Pelasgian name 94 

Difference of race and rank among the Greek population ... 95 

The Pelasgian element in the Greek language 96 

List of words (supposed to be of Pelasgian origin) common to 

the Greek and Latin languages 97 

I. Objects of Inanimate Nature 97 

II. Trees, Plants 98 

III. Animated Nature 98 

IV. Objects connected with Food 98 

V. Related to Out-door Labor 98 

VI. Navigation 98 

VII. Dwellings 99 

VIII. Clothing 99 

IX. The Human Body 99 

X. The Family 99 

IX. Society. . . < 99 

XII. General Ideas 99 

XIII. Adjectives of Common Use 100 

Scant stock of words relating to religion 100 

Words relating (1) to war, (2) to navigation, (8) to metals . . . 101 

Distinction with regard to names of persons, &c 103 

Extra-Homeric evidence of the wide extension of the Pelasgoi . 107 

CHAPTER IV. 
Hellas. 

The word ' Hellas ' and its derivatives : . 110 

Phthie ; the phrase ' Pelasgic Argos ' 112 

The designation ' Panhellenes ' 114 



xvi 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Kephallenes 115 

Helloi or Selloi : the Aspirate and Sigma interchangeable . . . 116 

Route of the Hellic tribes into Greece . 118 

CHAPTER V. 

The Phosnicians and the Egyptians. 

Minos 119 

His Phoenician character . . . . . . 120 

Phoenician tongue probably spoken in Crete 121 

Daidalos — Kadmos 123 

Important works of art obtained from the Phoenicians .... 124 

Dependence of the Greeks on the Phoenicians (ship Argo) . . 125 

The Egyptian Thebes 126 

Conclusion respecting the significance of the word ' Phoenicia ' 

in Homer 130 

Art of writing introduced by Phoenicians 131 

Art of building with hewn stone probably introduced by them . 132 

The people of Scherie (Corf u) of Phoenician stock ...... 133 

Their games '. 133 

Fine Art, in Homer, proceeded from a Phoenician source . . . 134 
Respective contributions of Pelasgians and Hellenes to the 

aggregate Greek nation 135 

Possible personal medium between Greece and Phoenicia . . . 136 

Were the Aiolids Phoenician ? 138 

Achaian invasion of Egypt 146 

CHAPTER VI. 

On the Title 'Anax Andr5n/ 

Substantial distinction between titles and epithets descriptive of 

• station or office . 151 

Title • Anax Andron/ to whom applied 153 

I. Agamemnon 155 

His extraction : passage concerning the Sceptre .... 155 
Simultaneous rise of the Achaian race and of the House 

of Pelops .• 158 

Tantalos 158 

Niobe: Pelops ■ 159 



CONTENTS. XVii 

PAGE 

Achaians a Thessalian race 161 

Title ('Anax Andron') anterior to the constitution of 

Achaian society 162 

II. Anchises, and III. JEneas 163 

Position of the Helloi and Dardanians severally .... 163 
Why the title is applied to Anchises and iEneas, but not 

given to Priam or any of his family 163 

Absence of Anchises from the Trojan Council ; his sover- 
eignty 164 

-ZEneas : jealousy between him and the house of Priam . 165 

Pointed use of the phrase 'Anax Andrdn, . . . . . . 166 

IV. Augeias 167 

Ruled over Elis .167 

His extraction and descent 168 

Ephure, a town of Elis 169 

V. Euphetes 170 

King of Ephure : distinction between the towns so named 170 

VI. Eumelos . . . .• 171 

Rules at Pherai ; an Aiolid 171 

Summing up of the Homeric evidence concerning the 

phrase ' Anax Andron ' 172 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 

Homer the maker, not of poems alone, but of a language, a na- 
tion, and a religion 176 

Contrast between Homer and the Hesiodic Theogony .... 177 

Variegated aspect of Hellenic religion ; reasons for this . . . 178 

Instances 179 

Modes of reconciliation or adjustment 180 

Debasement of the Olympian system 182 

Its specific principle humanitarian 183 

It wanted the supports of a hierarchy and of sacred books . . 183 

Actual operation of the Hellenic Theo-Mythology 184 

The later religion in relation to philosophers and legislators . . 184 
Plato's reproaches against Homer's treatment of the gods un- 
founded ; cases in point 187 

Materials supplied as the base of Homeric religion . . . ' . . 188 

The five great deities 189 

b 



xviii 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Homer's mode of dealing with the elder gods 189 

Vestiges in the Olympian system of Elemental worship . . . 190 

Nature-gods generally treated as subterranean 192 

Eiver-worship local 192 

Olympian system appropriates the materials of the older ele- 
mental one 194 

Homeric mythology ought to be severed from the schemes of 
(1) Nature-worship; (2) Eoman mythology; (3) scheme of 

classical Greece 195 

Homeric polity framed on the human model 195 

Instances of 196 

Functions of the deities 197 

Classification of the Olympian personages in Homer .... 200 

Limitations and liabilities of the subordinate gods 201 

Correspondence between certain features of the Olympian system 

and the Hebraic traditions 202 

The Messiah 205 

Theories as to the origin of heathen religions 206 

_y / Other Homeric correspondences with Hebrew tradition . . . 209 
The highest conception of deity does not exclude the element of 

fraud 211 

Grand distinction between the Homeric and the later systems . 214 

Homer's wide notion of the gods as governing all mankind . . ^4 

Collective action of the Olympian deities O^iL 

No instance of a married deity, save Zeus 216 

Element of deontology ; will and ought 

Classification of the Di majores 218 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 

Section I. Zeus 221 

Five different capacities ascribed to Zeus ....... 222 

1. The Pelasgian Zeus 223 

2. The Divine Zeus 225 

His universal supremacy 226 

His limitations and liabilities 227 

3. 4. The Olympian Zeus, and the Lord of the Air .... 228 

Omnipotence not conceived of by Homer .... 230 

Headship of Zeus ; the arbiter among the gods . . 230 



CONTENTS. Xix 

PAGE 

His sole and supreme responsibility 232 

Aristocratic character of the Olympian polity . . . 233 

5. Zeus the type of Anthropomorphism 234 

Individual character of Zeus of a low order .... 235 

Not, however, devoid of affections 236 

The masterpiece of Homeric mythology with regard 

to the humanizing element 236 

Section II. Here 236 

Of all deities the most national 236 

Special characteristics of ; she disappears from the Odyssey 237 

Called 1 Argeian Here ' 238 

Her rank in Olympos 239 

Interpretation of the myth of the deposition of Kronos . . 240 

The function of Here as regulator of birth 241 

Vestige of the prerogative of Here as a Nature-Power . . 243 

Section III. Poseidon 243 

His position and rank . . . 244 

Not an elemental deity ; Nereus the true sea-god .... 245 

Special functions of Poseidon 247 

Legends relating to him ; their character 248 

His province in the Outer- World 248 

His supremacy in the Odyssey working, rather than abstract 250 

Prevalence of Poseidonian worship among the Phoenicians . 251 

The Trident ; relation to some tradition of a Trinity . . 252 

Cyclops, children of Poseidon 252 

The Phoenician origin of Poseidon supplies a key to his posi- 
tion and attributes 253 

Section IV. Aidoneus 253 

Probably a Nature-Power of an older Theogony .... 254 

His character and functions 255 

The ' Zeus of the Underworld ' 256 

Section V. Leto 259 

Epithets given to her 259 

Her circumscribed action 259 

High ascriptions of her dignity 260 

Etymology of the name 261 

Probable record of the Hebrew tradition respecting the 

Mother of the Deliverer 262 

Section VI. Demeter 262 

Homeric evidence respecting her 263 

Her share in the old tradition of Nature-worship .... 265 



XX 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Section VII. Dime 266 

i A wife of Zeus ; mentioned in one passage only .... 266 

Testimony of Hesiod 266 

A Nature-Power , . . 267 

Section VIII. Athene and Apollo 268 

Their position in Olympos a hopeless solecism, if viewed 

apart from Hebrew traditions 269 

Relation of rank between Here and Athene 270 

Dignity of Apollo 271 

Correspondence of Homer with the Messianic tradition of 

the Logos and the Son of the Woman 272 

Superior sanctitas of Athene and Apollo 272 

They are the two great Agents 273 

Uniform identity of will between Zeus and Apollo . . . . 275 
Apollo the defender of heaven and deliverer of the im- 
mortals ' 276 

Functions of these two deities encroach upon the provinces 

of other divinities 277 

Jointly invoked 279 

No local limit to their worship . 279 

They are independent of limitations of place ...... 280 

Omnipresent; prayer addressed to them from all places . . 280 

Exempt from physical infirmity or need in general .... 281 

Attributes of bulk ; locomotion 282 

Apollo and Athene administer powers otherwise referred to 

Zeus . 283 

Both exercise vast power over external nature 284 

Both possess lofty moral excellence and purity 286 

Distinctive functions of Apollo, severing him from Athene 287 

The ministry of death .287 

Hellenic preservation of the element of Hebrew tradition 290 

Section IX. Hephaistos 291 

One of the seven astral deities of the East . . . . . . 291 

Dual course of tradition relating to Hephaistos 291 

The Charites 294 

Matchless deity of Hephaistos 295 

The architect of the palaces of the gods •. . 295 

Section X. Ares 296 

'In point of strength divine, in point of mind and heart 

simply animal ' 296 



CONTENTS. Xxi 

PAGE 

Represents the idea of raw courage 297 

Instances of his action . . . 298 

Section XI. Hermes 301 

His part in the Iliad secondary 801 

Instances of his agency . . . • 301 

Idea of concealment inheres in his character 302 

His probable connection with the Phoenicians ...... 303 

An agent rather than a mere messenger 304 

His name Argeiphontes 305 

Section XII. Artemis 305 

In the main a reflection of Apollo 306 

Relation of, to the Moon-goddess 307 

Shares with Apollo the ministry of death 308 

Her agency ubiquitous in character 309 

' Confers beauty (of figure) . 310 

Epithet ayv7] and its significancy 311 

Section XIII. Persephone 311 

Epithets applied to her 311 

Represents a mixture of Pelasgic and of Eastern traditions . 311 

Co-ruler with Aidoneus 311 

Etymology of the name 312 

The Persian race .313 

Section XIV. Aphrodite 313 

Her position and several functions in the Homeric mythology 313 

Local indications of her worship 317 

Etymology of the name 318 

Section XV. Dionusos 319 

Obscurity of traditions concerning him . 319 

No clearly divine act assigned to him : . 319 

Recital concerning Lucourgos 320 

Probable sign of his worship in the Odyssey ...... 320 

Worship of Dionusos recent ; and opposed on introduction 321 

He is placed within the Phoenician circle 322 

To be regarded probably as a deified mortal 322 

Section XVI. Helios, or the Sun 323 

His personality 323 

His appearance in (a) the Iliad, (6) the Odyssey .... 323 



xxii 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Theft of the Oxen of the Sun . 324 

> This legend of Phoenician origin 324 

The Sun an Eastern deity 326 

Incorporation of the traditions of Apollo with those of the 

Sun . ..... ".. . PfJ 

Section XVII. Hebe 327 

Character of her offices 327 

Expresses the idea of youth 328 

Section XVIII. Themis . . 329 

A member of the Olympian court 329 

Signification of the name 330 

Section XIX. Paieon 330 

His function as healer 331 

Eelation between Paieon and Apollo 331 

The paian or hymn to Apollo 332 

Section XX. Iris 332 

Instances of her office as Messenger . 333 

The name of the rainbow ; and the Hebrew tradition . . . 333 

Her agency 334 

Section XXI. Thetis 336 

Her origin elemental 336 

Her vast influence . . 336 

Her prayer to Zeus 337 

Etymology of the name 337 

Character of her marriage to Peleus 338 

Pelasgian worship of Zeus ; double relation of Thetis . . 339 

Instances of her agency 340 

The reconciler between the conflicting creeds 340 

Her influence with the gods grounded on obligation . . . 341 

Principal particulars respecting her . ... ... • • • 342 

Epithets applied to her 344 

Later traditions appear but arbitrary comment 344 



CHAPTER IX. 

Further Sketch and Moral Aspects of the 
Olympian System. 

I. Various Orders of Preternatural Beings 
1. The Nature-Powers 




contents. xxiii 

PAGE 

2. The Minor Nature-Powers 347 

3. Mythological Personages of the Outer or Phoenician 

Sphere 348 

4. The Kebellious Powers 349 

5. Ministers of Doom 349 

6. Poetical Impersonations 350 

II. TheErinues 350 

The three chief recognized descriptions of preternatural 

force. .......... . 350 

Action of the Erinues 352 

Their functions 352 

Etymology of the name 356 

III. Ate the Temptress 356 

Her place in Homer 357 

Character of her temptations 357 

IV. Fate or Doom 358 

Distinction between the words conveying the idea — Ker, 

Moira, Aisa, &c 359 

V. Animal Worship 366 

Sanctity attaching to the Oxen of the Sun 366 

Other traces of animal worship 362 

Animal Sacrifice 363 

VI. On the Modes of Approximation between the Divine and the Hu- 
man Nature .' ^563^/j 

Elements of the system of deification of mortals discernible *.y 

in Homer 364 

Divine filiation 367 

' Zeus-born ' princes 370 

Explanation of this title . 371 

. Four channels of approach between the human and divine 

natures 373 

VII. The Homeric View of the Future State 373 

Three-fold division of the Future World 374 

VIII. The Olympian System in its Results 377 

History of the human race before Christ is the history of a 

preparation for His Advent 377 

Character and vitality of the Olympian system 378 

A precursor of Christianity 380 



xxiv 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER X. 
Ethics of the Heroic Age. 

page 

Section I. General outline of the moral character of the 

Homeric Greeks 381 

Heracles 383 

Moral force of Religion . . • 384 

Voice of Conscience 386 

Homicide 387 

The weak point of tenderness for fraud 388 

Idea of sin implied in Homer 390 

The Homeric view of patience 392 

Virtue of justice 393 

Virtue of self-restraint 394 

The model spirit of moderation, the to fiiaov 396 

Implacability regarded as unequivocally vicious 397 

Extremest forms of depravity unknown ....... 398 

Domestic relations 400 

The Poet's admiration for Beauty 402 

The delicacy of Homer 403 

Sketch of Greek life in the heroic age 405 

Section II. Position held by women 408 

No trace of polygamy 410 

Concubinage 411 

Relations of youth and maiden 411 

Picture of Greek marriage 414 

Employments of women 415 

CHAPTER XL 

Polity of the Heroic Age. 

Similitude between Homeric and British ideas 417 

Reverence for kings . 418 

No ' balance of forces ' 419 

The kings 420 

Personal attributes of the king 422 

His fourfold character 428 



CONTENTS. XXV 

PAGE 

Agamemnon a ' King of kings ' 431 

Transactions of the Army decided in the Assemblies .... 432 

Ranks traceable in the army , 433 

Composition of the Council 434 

Importance of Power of Speech 435 

Majority and minority 439 

The TV, or Public Opinion 441 

Chief component parts of Greek society 442 

Representation of the state of society in Ithaca 445 

Absence of written ' law ' — The Oath . 447 

The Xeinos or Xenos 447 

Sources for supplying slaves 448 

The medium of exchange 450 

Leading political ideas of the Poems 451 

Bonds cementing Greek society 453 



CHAPTER XII. 

Resemblances and Differences between the Greeks 
and the Trojans. 



Double ethnical relation 455 

Religion . 456 

Prevalence of Nature-worship in Troy 457 

Sacerdotal institutions and ritual forms 459 

Superior morality of the Greeks 462 

Trojan tendency to sensual excess 464 

Polygamy of Priam 465 

Relation of Priam to subordinate countries '468 

Trojan Assembly 468 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Geography of Homer. 

Section I. The Catalogue 471 

Genealogies of the Greek Catalogue 471 

The Greek territory divided into three circles and a fourth 

irregular figure 472 

Greek and Trojan Catalogues 473 

c 



xxvi 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Section II. The Plain of Troy . . 474 

Leading topical points^ 474 

Discussion of Homer's description 475 

Section III. The Outer Geography 479 

Data for an Homeric map of the Outer Geography . . . 482 
Indications of Homer's belief in a great sea occupying the 

heart of the European continent 484 

Stages of the Voyages of Odysseus 488 

CHAPTER XIV. 
Plots, Characters, and Similes. 

Section I. The Plot of the Poems ; especially of the Iliad . 495 

Section II. Some Characters of the Poems 500 

1. Achilles .500 

2. Odysseus 502 

3. Agamemnon 506 

4. Diomed and Ajax 508 

5. Helen 509 

6. Hector 513 

7. Paris 516 

Section III. The Similes of the Poems [£. . ., 518 

CHAPTER XV. 
Miscellaneous. 

Section I. The Idea of Beauty in Homer . 521 

Personal Beauty, and Beauty of Landscape 523 

Section II. The Idea of Art in Homer 525 

Works of Art . 525 

Material of Art 526 

Homer's delineation of Art 528 

Egyptian and Assyrian schools of Art 529 



CONTENTS. 



xxvii 



PAGE 



Section III. Physics of Homer 530 

Section IV. Metals in Homer 533 

Section V. Measure of Value 538 

Section VI. Use of Number in Homer 540 

Section VII. The Sense of Color in Homer 544 



Index 



547 



CHAPTER I. 



Introduction. 

If, as the general opinion holds, the Iliad and the 
Odyssey are the works of an individual poet (whom 
we term Homer), they are probably, as a connected 
whole, the oldest in the world ; though a few of the 
Books of Scripture, and, in the opinion of some, a por- 
tion of the Yedas, may perhaps lay claim to a higher 
antiquity. They unquestionably contain a mass of 
information respecting man in a primitive or very early 
stage of society, which has not even yet been thor- 
oughly digested, and such as is nowhere else to be 
found. They have also, through the intervention of 
the Greek and then of the Roman civilization, for both 
of which they form the original literary base, entered 
far more largely than any other book, except the Holy 
Scriptures, into the* formation of modern thought and 
life. 

A main reason, which has prevented mankind from 
profiting to the full by these invaluable works, appears 
to have been this; that, except for the purposes of 
purely poetical appreciation, they have been viewed far 
too much through the medium of later traditions, of 

l 



2 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



the productions of the classic ages of Greece and Rome, 
and especially of the great epic of Yirgil ; and the 
multiform features of the picture which he draws have 
thus been confounded with the representations of much 
later, and in many respects very different ages. 

While the works of Homer have exercised an influ- 
ence which has been greater than those of any other 
poet, and which is rising apparently at the present 
time, nothing is known of his person. His blindness, 
but only in mature and late life, is allowably conjec- 
tured from the fact that he has drawn a careful and 
sympathizing picture of the blind minstrel Demodocos 
in Scherie 1 (now Corfu), and has made him more 
conspicuous than any other Bard mentioned in the 
Poems. Absorbed in his subject, the Poet never 
refers to himself: in half-a-dozen passages the perso- 
nal pronoun is used — 'Tell me, Muses,' 2 and the 
like; but it is a mere grammatical form, never spe- 
cially pointed to his own individuality. Of his charac- 
ter we can only judge as far as different passages of 
the Poems may enable us to trace his personal sympa- 
thies in their tone and color. The conjecture as to 
his blindness is indeed in accordance with a passage 
which Thucydides 3 quotes as his from the Hymn to 
Apollo, and which mentions it : but the weight of this 
evidence depends much more on the beauty and pathos 
of the verses, than on the fact that the great historian 
treats it as by Homer ; since he does not speak in the 
character of a witness, and the reference to Chios as 
the place of his residence is a circumstance calculated 
to excite strong suspicion. 



i Od. viii. 64. 



2 Od. i. 1. 



3 iiL 104. 



INTRODUCTION. 



3 



With respect to the date at which Homer lived, 
nothing is known, except it be by recent and as yet 
scarcely recognized discovery, 1 from sources extrinsic 
to the Poems. Herodotus places him at four hundred 
years before himself, in the ninth century before Christ. 
This would bring him nearly to the epoch of Lycurgus. 
But the state of society and manners in Greece de- 
picted by him is far anterior to all that is connected 
with the name of that legislator ; and betokens not 
only priority, but long priority, to the historic period, 
which is commonly said to begin with the Olympiad 
of Coroebus, b. c. 776. The date of 1183 b. c. is fixed 
by Eratosthenes for the fall of Troy : but it has long 
been known to be no more than conjectural. 2 In my 
opinion, that event is quite as likely to have been 
older, as to have been more recent. But there are in 
reality no fully acknowledged measures of time appli- 
cable to the decision of the question. Homer alone 
seems to afford us, for his own age, any means of esti- 
mating, however rudely, the lapse of years. His only 
chronology is found in genealogies, given by him in 
considerable numbers, and in singular correspondence 
with one another. But this knowledge, if authentic, 
stands as an island separated from us by a sea of un- 
known breadth. We have as yet no mode of establish- 
ing a clear relation of time between it and the historic 
era. 

The Poems afford, however, partial means of esti- 
mating the date of Homer, relatively to the War of 
Troy. He virtually states, that he was not an eye- 

1 See Chap. V. on Phoenicia and Egypt. 

2 Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, i. 123. 



4 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



witness of the War. 1 Poseidon 2 prophesies that the 
grand-children of iEneas shall reign in Troas ; and it 
is fairly argued that the Poet would not have ventured 
on the prediction, if he had not lived to see its entire 
or partial accomplishment. A grandson of iEneas 
may well have reigned in Troas within fifty or even 
forty years of the fall of the city ; and a son within a 
much shorter period. Arguments for a greater inter- 
val have indeed been founded on the passages, in 
which the Poet contrasts the might of the Troic heroes 
with the lower standard of his own time. But a ready 
answer is surely found in the fact that Nestor, in the 
First Iliad, 3 draws a somewhat similar contrast be- 
tween the heroes of his youth, and those of the Greek 
army before Troy. Figure is, in truth, the main 
element in all such comparisons. A third argument 
has been founded on the passage, in which Here 
observes to Zeus that he is free to destroy the cities 
she loves the best — Argos, Sparta, and Mycenae. 4 
Hence, it is thought, Homer must have lived after the 
Dorian conquest. But (1) we do not find that any of 
these cities were destroyed at that epoch ; and (2) had 
Homer lived in an age posterior to that great revolu- 
tion, he must have betrayed his knowledge of it not in 
one equivocal passage, but in many, and by a multi- 
tude of signs of later manners. (3) The Dorian con- 
quest had the immediate effect of reducing Mycenae to 
obscurity, while it left Argos and Sparta at the head of 
Greece; and it would be strange indeed that Homer, 
if he had witnessed it, should join the three in a single 



i II. ii. 486. 
a II. i. 260-272. 



2 II xx. 307. 
4 II. iv. 51. 



INTRODUCTION. 



5 



category, and take no notice of the distinction. From 
the manner in which the cities are mentioned, we may 
indeed rather say, that the passage affords an argu- 
ment to show that the Poet lived before that epoch, 
and not after it. (4) It is urged also that Homer 
mentions riding on horseback, and the trumpet, as in 
use, but not as in use during the War. But in the 
Tenth Iliad, Odysseus and Diomed ride the horses of 
Rhesos ; . and the trumpet appears to be mentioned 
only as used to summon a beleaguered place on the 
arrival of the enemy. 1 On the other hand, Homer 
.seems again to glance at his own case in the words 
addressed by Odysseus to Demodocos, respecting his 
Trojan lay : 4 You have sung the Achaian woe right 
well, as if you had yourself been a witness, or else had 
heard it from one.' 2 The idea seems here to be con- 
veyed with distinctness, that either actual experience 
or, at the least, the evidence of those who had pos- 
sessed it, was a condition of true excellence in historic 
song. Again, the elaborate plan by which, in the 
Twelfth Iliad, Homer accounts for the disappearance 
of the defensive work of the Greeks, seems to show 
that the interval since the War must have been short, 
for if it had been long, natural causes would have done 
more to account for it. 

A cardinal argument for placing the date of the Poet 
near that of his subject is, that he describes manners 
from first to last with the easy, natural, and intimate 
knowledge of a contemporary observer. He is in truth 
in visible identity with the age, the altering but not yet 
vanished age, of which he sings, while there is a very 



i II. xviii. 219, 220. 



2 Od. viii. 489-491. 



6 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



broad interval of tone and feeling between him and the 
very nearest of all that follow him. And even the 
difference to be observed in the shade of style and of 
manner between the Iliad and the Odyssey, is just 
such as would be fairly due, in part to the difference 
of the subjects, and in part to the shock of those alter- 
ations, which were evidently caused in Greece by the 
absence of its kings and leaders, during a prolonged 
period, at the War. I conjecture, without pretending 
to do more, that Homer may well have been born 
before, or during, the War ; and that he probably was 
familiar, during the years of his maturity, with those 
who had fought in it. For treating Homer as an 
Asiatic Greek, who lived after the migrations east- 
ward, there is really neither reason, nor trustworthy 
authority. 

As to the place of Homer's birth and residence, we 
are yet more in the dark than about his date. The 
testimony of the Poems is both slight and equivocal ; 
and no other testimony is authentic. In one passage 
he says the Locrians dwell beyond, or it may mean 
over against, Euboea, 1 on the East of Greece ; in 
another, the Echinades and Doulichion 2 are beyond, 
or over against, Elis, on the West of Greece. The 
second passage seems to destroy any such inference as 
Wood, in his ingenious Essay, 3 drew from the first. 
On the other hand, morning comes to Homer over the 
sea; 4 an expression which seems to contemplate a 
£ whereabout ' on the West of the iEgean. The char- 
acter given to Zephuros, the North- West wind, varies 



l II. ii. 535. 

3 Page 8. (First Ed. in 1775.) 



2 II. ii. 626. 
4 II. xxiii. 227. 



INTRODUCTION. 



1 



according as it is a sea-wind, which it is in the descrip- 
tion of the Elysian Fields ; or a mountain-wind, when 
it is described as charged with snow : 1 and no infer- 
ence can be drawn from it to show that Homer lived 
on any particular coast. Every line of the Poems 
bears testimony to the fact that Homer was not deriv- 
atively, but immediately and intensely, Greek. Con- 
tented with accumulated evidence of nationality in the 
highest sense, we must leave the question of the pre- 
cise birthplace and dwelling of the Poet in the dark- 
ness in which we find it. 

It cannot be too strongly affirmed, that the song of 
Homer is historic song. Indeed he has probably told 
us more about the world and its inhabitants at his own 
epoch, than any historian that ever lived. 

But the primary and principal meaning of the asser- 
tion is, that he is historical as to manners, customs, 
ideas, and institutions : whereas events and names are 
the pegs on which they hang. It is with respect, not 
to the dry bones of fact, but to all that gives them life, 
beauty, and meaning, that he has supplied us with a 
more complete picture of the Greek, or, as he would 
probably say, Achaian, people of his time, than any 
other author, it might almost be said than any number 
of authors, have supplied with reference to any other 
age and people. 

There are however very strong presumptions that 
Homer is also historical with respect to his chief 
events and persons. For, 1. It is the chief business 
of the Poet or Bard, as such, in early times to record 
facts, while he records them in the forms of beauty 



1 Od. iv. 566-568 ; xix. 206. 



8 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



supplied by his art. 2. Especially ' of the Bard who 
lives' near the events of which he professes to sing. 
3. It is plain that Homer so viewed the Poet's office, 
from the nature of the lays which he introduces ; from 
his representing to us Achilles engaged in singing the 
deeds of heroes ; 1 and from his saying that the gods 
ordained the War of Troy that it might be sung to 
all posterity ; 2 with other like sentiments. 4. The 
Poems were always viewed as historical by the Greeks. 
5. If fictitious in their basis, they would have been 
far less likely to acquire and maintain such command- 
ing interest. 6. The structure and tenor of the 
Poems throughout indicate the highest regard to na- 
tional tastes and prepossessions : and these tastes were 
manifestly very strong as to all matters of tradition and 
hereditary fame. Of this we have an indication which 
may be taken by way of example, in the question 
usually put to a stranger, who are his parents ? 
7. The number and the remarkable self-consistency of 
the Genealogies given in the Poems, appear almost of 
themselves to prove an historic design. 8. The Cata- 
logue in the Second Iliad implies a purpose with 
reference to the nation, much the same as that indi- 
cated by the Genealogies with respect to particular 
persons or families. 9. The Aristeia of the greater 
chieftains respectively, in the intermediate Books of 
the Iliad, are thought to load the movement of the 
Poem ; but they receive a natural and simple explana- 
tion from the tendency of a Poet at once itinerant and 
historical to distribute carefully the honors of the War 
between the different States and heroes. 10. A con- 



i II. ix. 186-189. 



2 Od. viii. 579. 



INTRODUCTION. 



9 



siderable number of the minute particulars given, es- 
pecially in the Iliad, are of a nature to derive 'their 
interest wholly from recording matter of fact ; such for 
instance as the small stature of Tudeus, the mare 
driven by Menelaos, and many more. 11. Homer 
often introduces curious legends of genealogy and 
race, in a manner which is palpably inopportune for 
the purposes of poetry, and which is, on the other 
hand, fully accounted for by the historic aim. These 
legends are not to be explained by the garrulity of 
Nestor ; for, even if the character of Nestor admitted 
of a garrulity wholly apart from good sense, still 
these legends are not confined to him. Nor are they 
shared, with him only by Phoenix, who is likewise in 
years ; they are spoken by iEneas, Glaucos, and others, 
and this too even on the field of battle : and, by means 
of them, Homer has supplied us with a great mass of 
curious knowledge, highly interesting to his auditors, 
and. eminently illustrative of the first beginnings of the 
Greek nation, as yet in embryo. His intermixture of 
supernatural agency with human events must be 
judged on its own grounds ; but cannot by the laws of 
historical criticism be held of itself to overthrow his 
general credit. 

We must not however attempt to define with rigor 
the limits, within which the Poems are to be considered 
historical. The free intermixture of the supernatural 
need not indeed constitute a serious difficulty. For 
the theurgy of the Poems is, so to speak, self-subsist- 
ent. It represents in the main a parallel and concur- 
rent action, rather than a mere ornament, or a simple 
portion of one and the same narration with the War ; 
and it lies upon the human and visible tissue like a 



10 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



continuous pattern of rich embroidery. But several 
points of the story are presented to us in a dress ap- 
parently mythical ; for example, the distribution of the 
time into three periods, each of ten years : and many 
of the names of persons appear to have been invented, 
especially in cases where they carry an etymological 
meaning calculated directly to serve the purpose of the 
Poem. Again, if we suppose an historical existence 
for the persons indicated by the names, for example, 
of Achilles and Helen, it remains open to doubt how 
large a proportion of the remarkable and characteristic 
features, with which they are invested, may be due to 
the imagination of the Poet. In the case of Achilles, 
whose qualities everywhere border on the superhuman, 
this question is especially relevant. Nor is the cir- 
cumstance to be overlooked, that a goddess is assigned 
to him as a mother, and is stated to have sat com- 
monly, or oftentimes, as queen in his father's palace. 1 

It must .also be fully admitted that, although the 
Troad may afford some physical indications favorable 
to the historic character of the Poems, yet the proof of 
that character chiefly, nay almost wholly, rests upon 
internal evidence. 2 But internal evidence, when car- 
ried to a certain point, is the very best we can desire 
in a case where we are obliged to travel back into the 
mist of ages, far beyond the limits of historical record. 

Of all the features of the Homeric Poems, perhaps 
the most remarkable are the delineations of personal 
character which they contain. They are not only in 
a high degree varied and refined ; but they are also 
marvellously comprehensive and profound. The proof 



i II. i. 396. 



2 Mure, Literature of Greece, vol. i. 



INTRODUCTION. 



11 



of their extraordinary excellence as works of art is to 
be found in this, that from Homer's time to our own, 
with the single exception of the works of Shakespeare, 
they have never been equalled. 

Homer is also admirable, when the specialties of 
his purpose are taken into view, in the arrangement of 
incidents : in keeping interest ever fresh : in his pre- 
cise and copious observation of nature : in his power 
of illustration, his use of epithets ; in the freedom, 
simplicity, and power of his language ; and in a ver- 
sification perfect in its application to all the diversified 
forms of human action, speech, and feeling. 

It may probably have been the combined and intense 
effort of the Trojan War by which the Greeks first felt 
themselves, and first became, a nation. At any rate, 
from that epoch appears to date their community of 
interest and life. Homer, then, was hardly less won- 
derful in the fortune of his opportunity, than in the 
rarity of his gifts. In speaking of his theme, the two 
Poems may be taken as virtually one. He supplied to 
his country thenceforward, and for all periods, the bond 
of an intellectual communion, and a common treasure 
of ideas upon all the great subjects in which man is 
concerned. He was not only the glory and delight, 
but he was in a great degree the 7101^9, the maker, 
of his nation. 

I have spoken of the darkness which, as far as direct 
testimony is concerned, envelops the person of the 
Poet. The same is the case with the Homeric Poems, 
distinguished from every other work of the first rank 
in these among other particulars : there is not one, of 
which so little has been told us by contemporary or 
early testimony; while there is not one which tells 



12 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



us so much. Of their origin, their date, and their first 
reception, we know nothing, except so far as we can 
gather it from themselves. The Cyclic Poems, which 
aimed at completing the circle of events with which 
they deal, never attained to an equal or competing fame, 
and have long ago perished. Periods of darkness, 
the length of which we cannot determine, both precede 
and follow the two great productions. At the dawn 
of trustworthy tradition, we find them holding a posi- 
tion of honor and authority among the Greeks, for 
which, with respect to works professedly secular, his- 
tory affords no parallel. 1 The Greeks had no sacred 
books, properly so called : and it is probable that the 
Poems of Homer filled in some particular respects the 
place of Sacred Books 2 for that people. 

By the Poems of Homer, I mean the Iliad and the 
Odyssey. I can find no adequate reason for assigning 
to him any other of the larger compositions of the 
early Greek Bards. Of the other works more or less 
reputed to be Homeric, not one can now be ascribed to 
him with confidence, or has been shown ever to have 
been so ascribed by the general and unhesitating opin- 
ion of the Greeks. The Hymns contain very few pas- 
sages of such mark as even to allow the supposition 
that they could have proceeded from him. Nor do they 
carry, so to speak, his physiognomy. No writer of any 
period has borne stronger and more characteristic 
notes of style. We have seen that one beautiful pas- 
sage is quoted from the Hymn to Apollo, by Thucy- 
dides. He describes that Hymn as a Hymn of Homer ; 

1 The case which comes nearest to this is, perhaps, that of the 
Divina Commedia of Dante. 

2 Milman, Life of Horace, p. 1 ;' Grote, Hist, of Greece, vol. 1. 



INTRODUCTION. 



13 



and doubtless he represents a tradition of his day. 
There are also one or two fragmentary verses ascribed 
to Homer : one passage, in particular, is given by Aris- 
totle, 1 and said to have been taken from a poem termed 
The Margites. It may be observed that besides their 
general inferiority, the Hymns in general embody 
mythological traditions, evidently of a later stamp 
than those of the two great Epics. 

The Iliad and Odyssey give a picture of the age to 
which they refer, alike copious and animated, compre- 
hensive and minute. The Iliad represents that age in 
its vigor ; the Odyssey paints it in the beginning 
of its decline, when Greece had been unsettled and 
disorganized by the prolonged absence of its chiefs at 
Troy. The Iliad gives us what it had been ; the 
Odyssey indicates what it was about to be. The de- 
lineations embrace jointly all the materials that human 
life and society could then in their simplicity supply : 
when writing was either unknown or unavailable, when 
civil rights had not begun to take the form of law, and 
when visible Art, in its higher sense, was an exotic 
not yet naturalized in Greece. In a manner chiefly 
incidental, there is supplied to us a mass of informa- 
tion on history and legend, religion, polity, justice, 
domestic life and habits, ethnical and social relations, 
the conditions of warfare, navigation, industry, and 
of the useful arts, exceeding in amount what has 
ever at any other period been brought for us into 
one focus by a single mind ; except possibly by the 
philosophical works of Aristotle, if we possessed them 
entire. 



1 Eth. Nicom., vi. 7. 



14 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



It has been doubted 1 at various times whether either 
Poem, and especially whether the Iliad, was the work 
of a single author ; and also whether the two were due 
to the same hand. The Chorizontes, so called because 
they separate the authorship of the Iliad from that of 
the Odyssey, found themselves mainly, 

(a) On supposed discrepancies in the mythology of 
the two Poems respectively : 

(b) On differences of manners and institutions : 
(<?) On differences in the language. 

Those who destroy the unity of the Poems, and es- 
pecially of the Iliad, altogether, contend, 

(a) That the art of writing did not exist at the 
time of their composition, and that poems of such 
length could not have been orally transmitted. This 
was the famous argument of Wolf. 

(6) That there are such discrepancies, anomalies, 
and defects of plan, in the Iliad, as to preclude the 
belief that it could be the work of a single mind. 

With respect to the argument of Wolf, it is now 
commonly admitted that no such art of writing ex- 
isted, as could be available for the transmission of the 
Poems: but his second proposition, that they could 
not be transmitted orally, is also very commonly 
denied. Quintilian says, 4 Invenio apud Platonem ob- 
stare memoriae usum literarum.' 2 Even in the period 
when the exercise of the memory had become subject 
to this disadvantage, Niceratos, according to Xeno- 
phon, 3 stated that he knew the Iliad and Odyssey by 

1 See the account of the controversy from its earliest phase among 
the Alexandrian Critics, in Mure, Hist, of Greek Lit. vol. i. ch. ii. 
iii. iv. 

2 xi. 2. 3 Sympos. iii. 5. 



INTRODUCTION. 



15 



heart : and Athenasus 1 states, that Cassander, king of 
Macedon, could do nearly as much ; he could repeat 
the chief part of the Poems. Even now, it would not 
be difficult to select youths, of strong memory, aided 
by poetic feeling, who, if they made it a profes- 
sion, would be able to acquire by heart the whole of 
them : which however need not have been done by all 
those who recited them under a system apparently 
organized with a view to recitation in parts. 

As respects the other heads of argument against the 
unity of the Poems generally, it may be sufficient for 
the present to reply as follows : — 

(a) The plot of the Iliad (as will be shown) is ad- 
mirably constructed for its purpose. 

(6) Its internal discrepancies are both very few, and 
very insignificant. 

(c) Some of the cases of alleged discrepancy are 
only such when the canons of modern prose are applied 
precipitately as the criteria of the oldest poetry. 

As regards the arguments of the Chorizontes or 
separators of the authorship of the two Epics, let it be 
observed : — 

(a) If the mythology of the Odyssey, in that region 
to which the voyage of Odysseus belongs, shall be 
shown to be Phoenician, 2 the whole argument from 
discrepancy in that mythology will thereupon disap- 
pear. 

(6) The differences in manners or institutions are 
not greater than may be explained by the action of a 
revolutionary crisis, like the crisis caused by the pro- 

1 xiv. p. 620. 

2 See infra, Chap. V. on the Phoenicians ; and Chap. VII. on 
Mythology, sect. Poseidon. 



16 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



longed absence in Troas ; and are really such as may 
be taken rather for an evidence of unity in authorship 
than the reverse. 

(c) Some differences of language between the two 
Poems is required by the different character of the 
subjects : and the actual differences seem not to be 
thought by scholars in general to betoken their be- 
longing to different ages. 

(d) A careful comparison of style between the Odys- 
sey and the Iliad, and of a number of particulars of 
turn and manner, will be found to supply a consider- 
able amount of very specific evidence for the unity of 
authorship. No such resemblances could be shown 
to the works of any other author, or to the Pseudo- 
Homeric compositions. 

(e) Those characters of the Iliad, which are also 
found in the Odyssey, reappear in the later Poem with 
a perfect preservation of identity, confirmed, not im- 
paired, by the altered shading which belongs to their 
altered positions. 

(/) The testimony of the Odyssey to facts, especially 
those connected with the war, is in no case discordant 
with that of the Iliad. For if the manhood of Neop- 
tolemos 1 creates a certain amount of difficulty, we 
should bear in mind that the adjustment of time with 
reference to the Poem, appears to be one of the points 
in which Homer has allowed himself a certain license, 
with a view probably to poetical effect. 

(#) But the overwhelming proof of the unity of au- 
thorship, both for each Poem, and. as between the two, 
is really supplied by the innumerable particulars of 



1 Od. xi. 506. 



INTRODUCTION. 



17 



manners, institutions, and ideas, which pervade both 
the Iliad and the Odyssey with a marvellous consist- 
ency ; and by the incommunicable stamp of an ex- 
traordinary genius which they carry throughout. If 
discrepancies exist, the difficulty they present is not 
only small, but infinitesimal, compared with the diffi- 
culty of that hypothesis which assumes that Greece pro- 
duced in early times a multitude of Homers, and all of* 
them with the very same stamp of mind. Whether in 
short we consider these works as poetry or as record, the 
marks of their unity are innumerable and ineffaceable. 
A part of their force is sensible to the ordinary reader ; 
but it will be felt; constantly and immensely to increase 
in proportion as the reader becomes the student, by 
virtue of a patient, constant, and thorough examina- 
tion of the text. 

Of the two Poems, it seems to me that, while both 
are wonderful, the Iliad is without doubt the greater. 
The plot of the Iliad, we shall find, is a marvellous 
combination of poetical skill with national spirit and 
practical prudence. The plot of the Odyssey, at first 
sight more organized and symmetrical, is in the first 
place of far easier construction, and in the second, is 
wound up in a manner which is feeble if not slovenly. 
The. suspicions of the genuineness of the Twenty-fourth 
Book appear to me on the whole to be tolerably met by 
a general conformity of turn and handling, though 
with diminished force ; and by many minute particu- 
lars of correspondence which, here as elsewhere, the 
text supplies. But they have perhaps been reasonably 
suggested by a perceptible inferiority of workmanship 
in this and, with some exceptions, in several Books 
preceding it. The vigor of the Iliad, on the other 

2 



18 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



hand, continues quite unabated to the end. Again, in 
the Odyssey there is not a mere decline of vigor: the 
plan of the ending may be called degenerate and in- 
complete. The ends of some of the threads are 
dropped. If ever a peace was patched it is that which 
is announced in the closing passage. The intervention 
of Mentor, even though his exterior conceals a deity, 
is not what the dignity of the Sovereign or the gran- 
deur of Odysseus would require. And the unexplained 
as well as unfulfilled prophecy ] of the war, suggests 
that Homer had poetical intentions to which it was not 
permitted him to give effect. 

Generally speaking, the Odyssey displays the same 
powers as the Iliad, but in less energetic manifesta- 
tion. A faculty of debate, never surpassed if ever 
equalled in human history, is found in both ; but 
though the flight of Odysseus in the Seventh Odyssey 
is, like that of the contention in the First Iliad, a lofty 
one, it cannot be compared with the wonderful speech 
of Achilles in the tent-scene of the Ninth. Again ; no 
man but Homer could have reproduced in the Odyssey 
to the life the characters of the Iliad, or could have 
added the specific shading of their altered circum- 
stances. But though Homer in each is stronger than 
any other of the Ancients, yet Homer of the Iliad is 
Homer at the height and maximum of his power in 
this transcendent quality ; while in the Odyssey the 
great luminary seems to have just begun his descending 
course. 

Next comes the question how far we may reckon 
on having substantially the same text as that of our 



i Od. xi. 127 ; xxiii. 275. 



INTRODUCTION. 



19 



author ; not as to any minor detail, nor even so as 
to exclude occasional interpolations, but as to the style, 
diction, and language generally. 

Mr. Paley 1 says (not that the Greek of the Iliad 
is greatly different from that of the Odyssey, but) 
that we find in the Poems two distinct and separate 
phases of the Greek tongue : first, the language of 
the earliest Trojan Epics, and secondly, the ordinary 
Ionic of the time of Herodotus, with a mixture of 
Attic idioms. The question is one evidently requir- 
ing minute examination ; but it is beyond my compe- 
tency to decide. I would observe, however, 

(a) That in an author who composed at a period of 
crisis, when all the elements of the Hellenic nation, 
that was to be, were settling down, we should look for, 
or at least should not be startled by, some mixture of 
older and younger forms. 

(&) That considerable changes of the minor order 
might be made in the text of the Poems without 
seriously affecting the substance, if there was a great 
and constant anxiety to abide by the true sense of 
Homer. 

(<?) That if we find the internal evidence as to man- 
ners, institutions, and facts, singularly self-consistent, 
this goes far to show that alterations of the text have 
been generally confined within merely verbal and nar- 
row limits. 

(d) The antiquity of the present text is not over- 
thrown by the fact that the later poets in many in- 
stances have followed other forms of legend in regard 
to the T r o i c a : for they would necessarily consult the 



i Athenamm, Aug. 10, 1867. 



20 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



state of popular feeling from time to time ; and tradi- 
tion, which, as to religion, altered so greatly after the 
time of Homer, would, as to facts and persons, it is 
evident, vary materially according to the sympathies 
of blood and otherwise at different periods of Greek 
history. The displacement of the Achaians, and the 
rise of the Dorians and lonians, must have occa- 
sioned great changes in this respect. It is also sur- 
prising, if such difference in the language really exists 
as is alleged by Mr. Paley, that it was not perceived 
by the Greeks of the classic period, who must surely be 
allowed to have known their own tongue. 

There are passages of ancient writers, which tend to 
the disintegration of Homer. But they are late, and 
of small authority. Josephus 1 says it was reported, 
or thought, that from want of the aid afforded by the 
art of writing there were many discrepancies in the 
Poems. This was merely a current opinion, not of 
himself but of others, on the state of the text ; an 
opinion which we can for ourselves see to have been 
erroneous. The Scholiast on Pindar 2 reports, and 
only reports, that Kunaithos and his school had made 
large interpolations. The Latin authors, such as 
Cicero or Paterculus, must be considered as giving 
their opinions, which cannot from the circumstances 
•be of great critical weight, rather than as witnesses 
in the case. 

The external evidence to a contrary effect, though 
fragmentary, is more considerable, and for the most 
part of much earlier date. Heraclides Ponticus 3 a 

i Contr. Ap. i. 2. 2 Nem. ii. 1. 

3 Fragm. irepl ttoIlteiuv. 



INTRODUCTION. 



21 



pupil of Plato, declares that Lycurgus obtained the 
Homeric Poems from the descendants of Kreophulos, 
and was the first to bring them into Peloponnesos. 
iElian 1 . makes the slight but material addition, that he 
brought this poetry in a mass (ddgoav). Plato states 
in the Republic 2 that Kreophulos was a companion of 
Homer ; Strabo, 3 that he was a Samian ; Diogenes 
Laertius, 4 that Hermodamas, the master of Pythagoras, 
was his descendant. Plutarch 5 states that some por- 
tions of Homer were known in Greece before Lycurgus 
brought the whole from Crete. 

Herodotus 6 states that Cleisthenes, the tyrant of 
Sicyon, when he had been at war with Argos, put a 
stop to the competitions of the rhapsodists in Sicyon, 
because the Homeric songs turned chiefly upon the 
Argeians and Argos (on "Aoyuol rs xal Idgyog ret Ttolla 
Tidvra vfivsarai). Also, that he sought to banish from 
Sicyon the memory of Adrestos, as being an Argive 
hero. Now the Iliad describes Greece not seldom un- 
der the title of Argos, and the Greeks frequently as 
Argeians ; and it represents Adrestos as the first king 
of Sicyon, while at the same time it represents him as 
the father-in-law or grandfather-in-law, of Diomed the 
Argive chieftain. 

From this passage it appears, — 

(a) That there were at Sicyon, six centuries before 
Christ, State-recitations of the Homeric Poems, at- 
tended with prizes. 

(5) That they are not named as peculiar to Sicyon, 



i Var. Hist. xiii. 14. 
3 xiv. p. 946. 
5 Lyc. p. 41. 



2 Rep. x. p. 600 B. 
4 viii. 2. 
6 v. 67. 



22 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



but rather as a customary institution, set aside in 
that place at a certain epoch on special grounds. 

(c) That the recitations depended chiefly on the 
Homeric Poems ; for they ceased when these were 
prohibited. 

Dieuchidas of Megara, an author placed by Heyne 
after the time of Alexander the Great, is quoted by 
Diogenes 1 as stating that Solon provided by law for 
the recitation of the Homeric poems e| vrtofiolijg, one 
reciter taking up another ; and therefore that Solon 
did more than Peisistratos to throw light upon the 
Poet. And Lycurgus the orator, who was contempo- 
rary with Demosthenes, 2 tells the Athenian people 
that their forefathers thought of him so highly as to 
provide by law for the recitation of his songs, and his 
alone, quinquennially at the Panathenaica ; and such, 
he adds, was then the valor of their ancestors, that 
the Spartans took Tyrtseus 3 . from among them to be 
their general. 

Hence it appears that — 

(a) According to Lycurgus, Homer was recited at 
Athens in the time of Tyrtseus, nearly seven centuries 
before Christ. 

(5) Just when Athens begins to rise, Solon appoints 
by public law competitive recitations of Homer, to be 
taken in turn by the reciters. 

(<?) And of Homer alone. 

Q$) It appears negatively that probably there were 
recitations at Athens before Solon, but without reg- 
ular turns. 



1 Diog. Laert. i. 57. 2 In Leocritum, 104-8. 

3 Smith's Diet., art. Tyrtaeus. 



INTRODUCTION . 



23 



(e) If public authority thus established the recita- 
tion of the Poems, we may rest assured that care was 
taken, as far as possible, to preserve their text from 
corruption. 

(/) The vanity or carelessness of a particular rhap- 
sodist would tend to corrupt them ; but the matches 
were free and competitive, and each reciter would be 
watched and checked by the vigilant jealousy of his 
rivals. This element of competition would in all 
likelihood have a highly conservative effect, before the 
art of writing had come into use. And it is plain, 
from II. ii. 594-600, that the practice prevailed from 
before the time of Homer himself; as he tells us that 
Thamuris had challenged the Muses to compete with 
him, and was punished accordingly for his audacity. 
Hesiod witnesses to the matches, and says that in 
Aulis he himself won a tripod. 1 Thucydides also 
finds proof of them in the Hymn to Apollo. 2 

(#) In a word, while there were at work what may 
be called centrifugal forces, tending to impair and 
vitiate the text of the Poems, there were also centri- 
petal forces tending to restore it ; in the rivalry of 
States as well as of Bards, in the intense love of the 
song of Homer felt by every Greek, and in the great 
value set by the whole people upon it as a record. 

When we come down to the historic period, we 
find in it full evidence of the standing anxiety both of 
States and persons to preserve the text of Homer. It 
appears probable that a common text was more or less 
recognized, while many even of the Greek Colonies 
had their public or State Recensions. Individuals of 



i Opp. 654-657. 



2 Hymn Apoll. 146-150, 166-173. 



24 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



eminence, or of literary taste, had their editions also. 
The Venetian Scholiast constantly refers to these two 
descriptions of copies, and while the references prove 
that there were in this, as in every ancient document, 
many variations of text, they also show that such 
variations were confined within narrow limits, and 
did not affect the body of the work. The State 
editions were called at Ttohzmal, at ex roov nolmv, at 
arto TtoXewv : those prepared for individuals at Mar' avdga : 
and a third class, got up apparently for public sale, 
and of very variable quality, were at mivosi, at d^onxai, 
at diftxcodeig. 

Among the public or State Kecensions, we hear of 
those of Crete, Argos, Sinope, Marseilles, Chios, Cyprus ; 
the Aiolis or Aiolike, a name which may perhaps 
indicate the recognized text of what is called Homer's 
iEolian Greek ; the Recension of the Mouseion, or de- 
pository near the School at Alexandria; and the 
Kuklike, which is supposed to mean an edition where- 
in Homer appeared with other poems of the Cycle. 

It seems very probable, that the work of Peisistratos 
was in substance a critical recension of the text effected 
by a comparison of different versions, and a complete 
publication by authority of the several portions of the 
Poems in the order in which we now have them ; in 
fact that it was an early and notable example of the 
reactive tendency to preserve the text by recurrence 
to a standard, and to check its variations, which I have 
mentioned as the natural counterpoise to disintegrat- 
ing agencies. 

We have no clear account of the proceedings of 
Peisistratos ; but we know that when, at a later period, 
the Alexandrian School of Zenodotos, Aristophanes, 



INTRODUCTION. 



25 



and Aristarchos brought the best critical power of the 
time to bear upon the Poems, they found comparatively 
little to question. Nor have the suspicions they enter- 
tained of particular passages since received any thing 
approaching to an unanimous approval. 

As to more general reconstructions, it is allowed 
that the Odyssey does not admit of them ; and such 
as have been proposed with regard to the Iliad have 
manifestly failed to obtain any sensible, much more 
any permanent, amount of assent. 

But the strongest argument for the soundness of 
the text, as well as that for the unity of the Poems, 
hangs upon internal evidence. I do not hesitate to 
say that no work known to me presents, in any degree 
equal or approaching to these Poems, the proof, in 
kind among the strongest of all, which arises out of 
natural unstudied self-consistency in detail. The 
particulars in which the text confirms at one point 
what it conveys at another may be counted by many 
thousands : those , where it appears to be inconsistent 
are but a few units to be reckoned by the primitive 
process of Proteus upon the fingers. Errors undoubt- 
edly there must be. Still, if they were very serious, it 
is impossible but that a far greater number of them 
must have been tracked out, and their detection 
established to the general satisfaction of cultivated 
men. On one portion only of the Forty-eight Books, 
namely the close of the Odyssey, has there been thrown 
what may be termed grave or recognized doubt ; and 
even here doubt is all that can be reasonably sus- 
tained. Indeed, over and above correspondence of 
tangible particulars, there is what I must call an unity 
of atmosphere in the Poems, such as I believe has 
never been achieved by forgery or imitation. 



26 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



In this chapter I have not relied upon the tradition 
according to which Lycurgus, the great Spartan law- 
giver, brought the Poems into use in Lacedsemon, be- 
cause it is one belonging to the Roman rather than the 
Greek period. On the other hand I cannot attach 
great weight to the statement in the Hipparchos, 1 
which assigns to that Sovereign the original introduction 
of the Poems into Attica. It appears simply incredible 
that the Poems should have been unknown in Attica, 
when we learn from Herodotus that they had long 
before been recited in Sicyon. 

On the whole, then, we are not in every case dog- 
matically to assert that each line of the Poems as they 
stand is the work of Homer ; but while fairly weigh- 
ing the evidence in the comparatively few cases where 
doubt sustained by argument has been raised, we may, 
* as a general rule, proceed to handle the text with a 
reasonable confidence, that the ground is firm under 
our feet ; a confidence, which experience in the work 
will, I think, be found progressively to confirm. 

Thus far we have seen reason to suppose that the 
Iliad and the Odyssey are the work of a Poet who lived 
at a date that we are unable to define otherwise than 
by its nearness to the Trojan War ; an event which, if 
we attempt to measure its distance from the historic 
era by manners and institutions, we must hold to be of 
a high antiquity. 

At times it has been questioned, whether Homer or 
Hesiod was the older poet. We know of Hesiod that 
while the reputed authors of the Cyclic Poems belong 
to the historic era, 2 he is pre-historic ; and we must 



1 Sect. iv. 



2 Mure, Lit. of Greece, ii. 282. 



INTRODUCTION. 



2T 



seek, therefore, in his works, as in those of Homer, 
for the means of estimating his probable 6 whereabout' 
in the deep mist of ages. He gives us no sign that 
the instrument of writing had become available at his 
epoch for the preservation of poetry ; and if his com- 
positions, as being much shorter, taxed the memory 
more lightly, on the other hand we have no reason 
to believe that they were watched with the same jeal- 
ous care to preserve, or to recover, the genuine text. 
But if the episode of the Five Ages be genuine, they 
are decisive of the question. For the composer of it 
had been witness to an iron age ; and iron, as com- 
pared with copper, had in his time come to be the 
inferior, that is to say the cheaper, metal. The use 
of it therefore must have grown common, as from 
remains still extant, it had evidently come to be com- 
mon in Assyria at a period supposed to be about the * 
eighth century before Christ. Homer lived at a period, 
as defined by economic laws, much earlier ; at a time 
when the use of iron was but just commencing, when 
the commodity was rare, and when its value was very 
great. This argument appears to me so conclusive 
as to the comparative dates, that I forbear to dwell on 
other particulars, or upon the considerable difference 
in the manners of the Hesiodic, as compared with the 
Homeric, Poems. 

We have also seen that in the state of primitive so- 
ciety it was essential to the business of the Epic Bard 
to commemorate, in poetic forms, actual events ; and 
that the works of Homer prove how he kept this prop 
erty of his art constantly in mind. 

Viewing then his position in human history and his 
profession, we find that he is an original and a solitary, 



28 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



as he is also a most copious, witness to the condition of 
mankind, and especially of the Greeks, at a period to 
which we have no other direct literary access. Tradi- 
tions there are in abundance, reported by Apollodorus 
in mass, or scattered here or there through the works 
of earlier writers ; and these traditions may, in any 
given case, contain matter relating to the age of Ho- 
mer, or to what preceded him, and may even in some 
cases be true, or nearer the truth than his. But they 
carry as a general rule no attestation ; and their con- 
fused and promiscuous nature marks them as a miscel- 
lany gradually accumulated in many ages and from 
many lands. I submit then that we ought to make 
the evidence of Homer, in relation to his age and to 
what had gone before, a separate study, and to assign 
to it a primary authority. The testimony of later 
writers should be handled in subordination to it, and in 
general even tried by it as by a touchstone, on all the 
subjects which it embraces. It will be seen, as we pro- 
ceed to deal with the contents of the Poems, that this 
is a proposition fruitful of important results as regards 
the religion, the polity, and the manners of early 
Greece. 

In asking for the testimony of Homer a primary 
authority, I refer only to those cases where it stands 
in competition with other, and in truth inferior, liter- 
ary evidence. The evidence of fact, whether in geo- 
graphy and topography, in language or in archaeology, 
stands upon its own ground, and Homer, like every 
other author, must yield, if a conflict arise, to its more 
cogent authority. 

I will give a single example of the discrepancy be- 
tween the Homeric, and the later, representations of the 



INTRODUCTION. 



29 



early Greek ethnology. According to a tradition 
founded in part upon Apollodoros, 1 in part upon a 
fragment ascribed by Tzetzes to Hesiod, 2 Deucalion 
was the son of Prometheus, and a certain Hellen was 
the son of Deucalion. Hellen had three sons, Aiolos, 
Doros, and Xouthos ; and Xouthos again had two sons, 
Ion and Achaios. 

It is impossible not to be struck with the convenient 
adaptation, speaking generally, of this tradition to the 
reputed descent and succession of the various Greek 
races, so as to give to each its share of fame and its 
order of seniority. All Greeks were Hellenes, so 
Hellen is made the father of them all. The oldest 
among these names in the Greek tradition is Aiolos ; 
so an Aiolos is made the eldest son of Hellen. The 
great dominant race of the first historic ages of Greece 
was the Dorian ; accordingly, Doros is the second son 
of Hellen. The Ionians, represented by Attica, came 
later to their repute and power ; so they, and the 
Achaians to whom they gave a refuge after the Dorian 
conquest, appear as the children of the third and young- 
est son. This tradition may be properly viewed as a 
pretty piece of joinery. But Mure 3 has with justice 
observed that the name Hellen bears witness against 
itself, being apparently derived from the territorial 
name Hellas, and that in its turn from the Helloi. 
When we bring this tradition, thus discredited by in- 
ternal evidence, to the bar of Homer, we find him in 
discord with it on every point. Of Hellen as a person 
he knows nothing: the name would to all appear- 

1 Lib. vii. 2, 3. 2 Fragm. xxviii. ap. Tzetz. ad Lye. 284. 

3 Lit. of Greece, vol. i. p. 39 n. 



30 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



ance have meant in his ear most properly an inhabi- 
tant of Southern Thessaly. Aiolos, if named by him 
at all, is named as a foreigner ; while only particular 
families, not a tribe descended from him, are indicated 
as having borne or bearing rule in parts of Greece. 
Doros is wholly unknown to him ; and the Dorians are 
a portion, apparently an obscure portion at the time, of 
the inhabitants of Crete. Of Xouthos we have no 
trace whatever ; in fact this whole family is, as such, 
utterly non-existent. There is no Ion ; and the Iaones 
who appear as settled in the Attica of Homer, are 
without any tribal eponymist. Again, there is no trace 
of an Achaios ; but the name Achaioi is the dominant 
name of the period, and the crown of its celebrity. 

Such, exhibited by an example, is the contrariety 
between Homeric and post-Homeric tradition. We 
shall see in due time what materials the text of Homer 
can contribute towards the construction of the ethnol- 
ogy of Greece in the heroic age. 

In the following pages I endeavor to give to the 
testimony of Homer what I have described as its due 
place. They are based upon a wide collection of par- 
ticulars from the text. And, as far as possible, I have 
supplied the reader with means of judging where it is 
Homer that speaks, and where it is an illustrative tra- 
dition, or an indication drawn from some other than a 
literary source ; as also of distinguishing in all cases ' 
between evidence, and the inference or conjecture 
which I may have presumed to found upon it. 

Upon the whole, I trust enough has been said to show 
that in the text of the Poet we may find solid mate- 
rials to work upon for the handling of the Homeric 
question. With this encouragement, let us commence 
our inquiries. 



CHAPTER II. 



The Three Great Appellatives. 

The name of Greeks, as the modern equivalent of 
the several appellatives by which Homer describes the 
army engaged in the siege of Troy, is too firmly estab- 
lished to be changed. But it is not a correct name. 
The Greek equivalent of the word is rqaMoL The 
name rgala 1 is found in the Iliad, but it is only a local 
name of a settlement of Boiotoi or Boeotians. The 
name applied to themselves by the Greek people 
throughout the historic times, as at the present day, 
was not Graikoi, but Hellenes. And even this name, 
as Thucydides 2 observes, had not come into vogue in 
the time of Homer. It was indeed, as we shall find, 
creeping, so to speak, into use : but the standing ap- 
pellations of the army in the Iliad are these three, 
Danaoi, Argeioi, and Achaioi; and it is suffi- 
ciently plain that the most proper national name for 
the Greeks of the period was that of 'Aiaioi, Achaians. 
We call them Greeks conventionally: but with no 
more accuracy than we should render the Galli of 
Cassar by the word 6 French.' We should bear in 



i II. ii. 498. 



2 i. 3. 



32 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



mind, then, that in strictness the Greeks of the Troica 
were Achaians. 

We find in Homer traces, as of a religion, so of a 
race, or group of races, who inhabited the Greek penin- 
sula before the Achaians, or any other tribe of the 
blood afterwards classed as Hellenic. These inhab- 
itants passed in different places under a variety of 
designations ; of which the most comprehensive and 
wide-spread 1 appears to have been Pelasgoi. They 
seem to have formed the base of the Greek army, and 
of the people subject to the sway of Achaian and other 
great families. 

There is no trace in the poems of their having used 
a language different from that of their superiors in 
station, although the tradition of a difference in blood 
subsisted down to the historic time, and although the 
Pelasgian language, where the people using it had not 
been blended with the Hellenes, had then come to be 
accounted as a distinct, if not a foreign, tongue. 

The relation between this older race and the Hel- 
lenic tribes leads to the conclusion that both were alike 
derived from the Aryan stem. And there is no reason 
to believe that there were any earlier occupants of the 
Greek, or of the Italian Peninsula, 2 than the group 
of tribes that was called Pelasgian. Neither of these 
countries presents us with remains belonging to what 
is called the stone period of the human race, when im- 
plements and utensils were made of that material, and 
the use of metals was unknown. The first emigrants 
from the East may probably have worked their way by 

1 Thirlwall, Hist, of Greece, vol. i. chap. ii. 

2 Mommsen, Hist, of Rome, chap, i. 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



33 



land to and along the comparatively level and easy 
countries of Central Europe, and seem not to have 
penetrated through the masses of mountain, which 
inclose on their northern sides both Greece and Italy. 
The boast of autochthonism, or birth from the soil, so 
rife in the historic ages of Greece, was therefore not 
irrational, if we consider it to betoken only the claim 
to first occupancy. And it seems to have been princi- 
pally in vogue among the people of Attica and Arcadia, 
the former of which had long been impressed with a 
markedly Pelasgian character, while the latter retained 
that character even through the historic period. The 
particulars which have been embraced in this slight 
survey are partly suggested by, and are in all cases 
accordant with, the Homeric testimony. 

The Greeks of the Iliad are ordinarily called by 
Homer 

1. Danaoi. 

2. Argeioi. 

3. Achaioi. , 

They are also called 

1. Panhellenes, II. ii. 530. 

2. Panachaioi, II. ii. 404; vii. 73, 159, 327 ; ix. 301 ; 

x. 1; xix. 193; xxiii. 236. Od. i. 239; xiv. 
369 ; xxiv. 32. 
With respect to the three first, which may be called 
the Great Appellatives of Homer, it is manifest that 
the Poet frequently uses them as interchangeable and 
synonymous. Yet, upon examination, important dis- 
tinctions will be found to exist between them. 

The various legends interspersed through the Poems 
carry back the Homeric tradition to a period several 
generations earlier than the War of Troy : which War, 

3 



34 JUVENTUS MUNDI. 

together with the attendant group of circumstances, I 
shall commonly call the T r o i c a. But we shall find 
that Homer does not also carry backwards the use of 
these appellatives indifferently through the pre-Troic 
period : and thus we shall obtain pretty clear evidence 
of a chronological succession among them. 

This rule applies likewise to other Homeric names. 
For example ; when reference is made, in the narra- 
tive of the Iliad, to the soldiers belonging to the coun- 
try afterwards called Boeotia, he describes them as 
Boiotoi. But where Agamemnon and Athene^ intro- 
duce the legend 1 of Tudeus, which touches the people 
of the same district at a prior epoch, they are called 
not Boiotoi but Kadmeioi and Kadmeiones. More- 
over, in this same legend appear the people of Argos 
and the people of Mycenae. They are both called 
Achaioi, a name never given to the Kadmeioi. 

In the legend of the birth of Eurustheus, 2 the scene 
is laid in "Aqyog 'Axaimov. This name we shall find 
still attached perhaps to the Peloponnesos, and cer- 
tainly to the Eastern Peloponnesos, in the time of 
Homer. Its inhabitants, who are described, as we 
have seen, in the time of Tudeus, that is to say one 
generation before the War, as Achaioi, are called, in 
the time of Eurustheus, and therefore before the period 
of the Pelopids, not Achaioi but Argeioi. 3 It seems 
impossible to treat these very marked usages as acci- 
dental. 

About the same period Proitos, whom the post- 
Homeric tradition represents as a brother of Eurus- 
theus, expelled Bellerophon from Ephure. 4 The text, 



i II. iv. 385-398 ; v. 800-807. 
3 II. xix. 122, 124. 



2 II. xix. 95 seqq. 
4 II. vi. 158. 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



35 



true to itself, describes the people over whom Proitos 
ruled, not as Danaoi or Achaioi, but as Argeioi. In 
the same manner the Poet here describes as Ephure 
what in the Catalogue he calls Corinth. 1 

Homer then appears to point to Argeioi as the more 
ancient, and Achaioi as the more recent, name. But, 
moreover, he uses the two designations with marked 
respect to place as well as time. 

In the Eleventh Iliad, 2 Nestor details to Patroclos 
the legend of the war between the Pulians, and the 
Epeians who inhabited Elis. He calls the Pulians dis- 
tinctively Achaians, where he is speaking of them as 
the conquering party. He seems to withhold that 
name from the conquered: and he gives it to the 
Pulians at a period which must have been within the 
life and reign of Eurustheus, that is to say, the period 
when the name of Argeians was attached to those who 
inhabited the ruling quarter of Greece, or the Eastern 
Peloponnesos. 

But the word Argeioi, used freely by Homer as a 
national designation, has also a marked local sense in 
the poems. It is a standing epithet, in the singular, 
of Helen, and this too in the mouth of Greeks, and of 
deities, whose use of it gives it a force quite different 
from that which it might have had among the Trojans. 
The purely national name would in such a case have 
been void of distinctive meaning; but now we natu- 
rally interpret the epithet as referring to the part of 
Greece with which Helen was especially connected. 
According to the post-Homeric tradition, confirmed by 
the Iliad, which makes Lacedsemon the country of 



i II. ii. 570. 



2 II. xi. 670-761. 



36 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Castor and Poludeukes, 1 Tundareos, her father, was 
king of Sparta. Till the Pelopid House acquired it, 
and thus the Achaian sway began, this would be an 
Argeian kingdom; and thus Helen, though the wife 
of Menelaos, represents by her descent an Argeian 
title to it, so that the epithet thus acquires a full sig- 
nificance. 

Thus far I have cited some examples to illustrate the 
practice of Homer. Let us now consider the leading 
particulars connected with the use of the three Great 
Appellatives. 

The name Danaoi is used in the Iliad 147 times: 
in the Odyssey thirteen. Once it is combined with 
Argeioi, in Od. viii. 578, and appears to serve as an 
epithet. It is never used in the feminine. It is never 
used in the singular ; and never locally. . It seems 
never to signify the people inhabiting the Greek pen- 
insula and islands, nor their ancestors in prior his- 
tory : but invariably and only the Greeks of the army. 
It has therefore all the appearance of being an heroic 
and poetical rather than an historical appellation, and 
thus it is well adapted to describe men engaged in a 
military expedition surrounded with the most romantic 
associations. 

Accordingly, the epithets applied to Javaol are ex- 
clusively of a military character. They are 

1. ijgwsg, II. ii. 110, 256 ; xv. 733 (heroes). 

2. 6eQa7tovreg "Aqi]Os, II. vii. 382 ; xix. 78 (comrades of 

Ares). 

3. cpiloTtr6l8[j,oi, II. xx. 351 (war-loving). 

4. aiyjMjzai, II. xii. 419 (spearmen). 

5. damatai, II. xiii. 680 (shielded, heavy -armed). 

i II. iii. 244. 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



37 



6. iqdifioi, II. xi. 290 (stalwart). 

7. Ta%v7tcoXoi, II. viii. 161 (of swift steeds). 

It being then plain that Dan aoi was not the proper 
contemporary name of the Greeks, it is also plain that 
it could not have been applied to the Greeks as an 
army before Troy, unless it had had some root lying 
deep in the history or legends of Greece. 

National or tribal names in Homer usually come 

1. From an eponymist or founder of a state, directly 
as Dardanoi or Troes, or Kadmeioi; or indi- 
rectly, when they proceed from the name of a country, 
which name has been acquired from an eponymist. 
Such is Ithakesioi from Ithake, Ithak£ itself being 
derived from Ithakos, who is mentioned in Od. 
xvii. 207. 

2. In like manner a name may come mediately from 
a race instead of an individual. Thus it seems that 
H e 1 1 a s is derived from H e 1 1 o i , and is in its turn the 
source of the great national name Hell en. 

3. From the physical character of the country in- 
habited, as Threkes (Thracians), from Oqt^, describ- 
ing a rough highland country: 1 or Aigialeis, from 
Aiyialog, the district of coast to the south of the Gulf 
of Corinth. 

4. In the single case of the Athenians, we find the 
name of a population derived from that of a deity. 

Besides the Homeric names which can be traced to 
one or other of these sources, there are names of which 
the connection with any of them is not established, or 
even where it is improbable. 

The text of Homer affords very slender aid for 



i Cf. Od. ix. 27.. 



38 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



tracing the name Danaoi up to its source. But we 
must combine the fact of its application, limited as it 
is, to the nation, with the negative evidence afforded 
by this fact, that Homer nowhere uses the name as a 
domestic name, either for his own or for the immedi- 
ately preceding generations. This seems to throw 
back the origin of the name to a period comparatively 
remote. 

And when we reach such a period, we find at least 
a clue. In II. xiv. 319 we hear of the amour of Zeus 
with a beautiful Danae, of the royal house of Acrisios, 
from which union sprang Perseus and his line. The 
presumption then arises, that this Danae, being the 
daughter and mother of princes, was of the lineage of 
a Danaos, that this Danaos was himself a real or re- 
puted prince of celebrity, and that he gave his name 
to the people with whom, and among whom, he effected 
a settlement in Greece. 

This may be the proper place to observe that, on the 
subject of the foreign origin of Greek races or houses, 
Homer is what is termed an unwilling witness. In- 
tensely national in feeling, he represents the first form 
of that peculiar sentiment which, in the historic period, 
divided mankind into Greeks and Barbarians ; much 
as the Hebrew race, upon grounds of a more definite 
character, made their division of the world into Jew 
and Gentile. There can be little doubt that Homer 
could, if he would, have told us much respecting im- 
migrations and settlements in Greece, which now re- 
mains the subject of comparatively dark conjecture. 
But it may be broadly laid down that he systematically 
eschews tracing either a family or a tribe to an origin 
abroad. It seems to-be his intention that we should 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 39 



assume all Greek families and races, and further all 
Greek manners and institutions, to have sprung out 
of the soil. The sources of silver and copper and 
some other commodities, and moreover of works of 
art, he is willing, or even careful, to point out. But 
not so as to man and his highest operations. Though 
he tells us sometimes of foreign persons and events, 
he never, I think, consciously supplies, but seems hab- 
itually to keep back, the link between them and his 
own beloved Greek nation. 

All this seems to be comformable to the course of 
natural feeling. Arrivals from abroad, in the earliest 
periods of the life of a nation, usually indicate either 
the conquest, or at least the superiority, in one form 
or another, of foreigners over natives, of what is strange 
to the soil over what is associated with it. In this 
there is some violation of that feeling of simple rever- 
ence for the past, which is so conspicuous among the 
Greeks of Homer, and which is jarred by the memory 
of all disturbances of its even tenor. It can hardly 
be that, in any country, such narratives should be 
popular at or near the time of the events. Even the 
process by which Hellenes mastered Pelasgians, or by 
which Pelopids put themselves in the place of Perseids, 
is nowhere disclosed to us by Homer : whose purpose 
it was to unite more closely the elements of the 
nation, and not to record that they had once been 
separate. 

When Homer tells us of descendants of a Tantalos, 
or an Aiolos, and of a people called Kadmeiones, but 
gives us no clue to the extraction, or to the habitation, 
of any of these personages themselves, we may conclude, 
without much risk of error, that none of them were 



40 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



native Greeks, and that their names mark the point of 
transition from a foreign to a Greek domicile for 
their respective families. He never even names the 
connection of Kadmeiones with Kadmos, or of Pelo- 
pidai with Pelops ; both these great personages are 
only named by him incidentally, in remote portions of 
the Poems ; and as to Aiolos, the ancestor of the 
Aiolids, it has not yet been generally recognized that 
the Poet names him at all. 

Without, then, calling in the aid of extraneous tra- 
ditions, it appears highly probable that the Danaoi 
bore the same relation to a Danaos, as the Kadmeioi 
obviously bear to a real or imaginary Kadmos. 

It is also probable, that Danae" stands in the genera- 
tion next to Danaos. For Danae herself stands, as 
we shall see, in the sixth generation before the T r o i c a ; 
and the knowledge and traditions of Homer nowhere 
go back beyond the seventh generation. But as Danae 
is the daughter of Acrisios, not of Danaos, it is proba- 
ble that Acrisios was a younger brother of Danaos ; 
and that the genealogy stands as follows : 

1. Danaos = Acrisios. 

2. Danae. 

3. Perseus. 

4. Sthenelos. 

5. Eurustheus. Contemporary with Heracles and Pelops. 

6. Atreus = Thuestes. 

7. Agamemnon = Aigisthos. 

It will here be perceived that the text of Homer is 
altogether at variance with those later legends, which 
throw back the first Greek dynasties into a very remote 
comparative antiquity. There is, I apprehend, an in- 
trinsic improbability in such legends as affect to trace 
prolonged lines of sovereigns through ages of darkness 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



41 



and barbarism, not possessed of the ordinary means 
of record ; but there is also this strong presumption 
in favor of the Homeric text, that his genealogies, 
gathered indiscriminately as they are from different 
parts of the Poems, are in singular, if not absolutely 
unvarying, accordance with each other. 

According to the post-Homeric tradition, Danaos 
was an Egyptian, and was brother of Aiguptos. He 
migrated into Greece, and became king of Argos. 
Proitos was his great-grandson ; and as, according to 
the legend of the Sixth Iliad, 1 Proitos stands at two 
or two and a-half generations before the war, there is 
here an apparent agreement with Homer ; but as 
Acrisios also is made the brother of Proitos, a much 
greater antiquity is in effect claimed for the immigra- 
tion of Danaos. So far, however, as respects his 
personality, the seat of his kingdom, and his being of 
foreign origin, 'the later tradition sustains the pre- 
sumptions arising from the text of Homer. 

The early disappearance of the name from the roll 
of tradition would be easily accounted for by that 
change of the dynasty in the male line which takes 
place at the time of Danae\ 

From what country Danaos came, we shall hereafter 
have occasion to consider. For the present we may 
take him to have been one of the personages who 
arrived in Greece as a stranger, and who there founded 
such a dynasty, among the primitive or Pelasgian 
population, as became naturalized. This foundation 
seems to have taken place at the very commencement 
of what we may call the traditionary, as opposed to the 



l II. vi. 158. 



42 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



merely mythical,' period, about two hundred years 
before the Trojan War. 

Even this is considerably older than the date of any 
family which we can connect with the Achaian name, 
or with the Hellenic stock. It seems, however, quite 
possible that Perseus and his race may on the father's 
side have descended from an Hellenic ancestry, and 
that the fable of Zeus and Danae may be no more than 
a veil -employed to cover the transition, and to dignify 
the origin of the incoming family. 

Hesiod 1 terms Perseus both Dana'ides, and son of 
Danae and states that Danaos relieved Argos from 
drought. JEschylus in the Supplices 2 represents the 
whole Greek Peninsula as having been originally sub- 
ject to one and the same sway under Pelasgos. Euri- 
pides 3 says that Danaos changed the name of the 
Peloponnesians from Pelasgiotai to Danaoi. These re- 
ports are in no way at variance with the Homeric 
text. 

Upon the whole, then, the probable conclusions are : 

1. That the Danaan name was dynastic. 

2. That the dynasty was pre- Hellenic. 

3. That it stands next in chronological succession 
to the Pelasgic time ; and 

4. That it makes its appearance at about two cen- 
turies, more or less, before the War of Troy. 

We have next to deal with the name Argeioi. 
And first as to the facts connected with its use in* the 
Poems. 

It is found 177 times in the Iliad, and seventeen 



i Fragm. 58, and Scut. Here. 216, 229. 2 v . 262. 

3 Ar. Fr. ii. 7. 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



43 



times in the Odyssey. I speak of the plural form. 
The singular is also used eleven times in the Iliad, 
and seventeen times in the Odyssey. 

Of the seventeen passages in the Odyssey, not one 
refers to the Greeks as a nation, or as contemporary 
with the action of the Poem. In two of them, Od. iii. 
309 and xv. 240, the word signifies the inhabitants of 
Argolis or the North-Eastern Peloponnesos. In the 
other fifteen, it is always applied to the Greek army 
before Troy. 

In the Iliad, we have certain cases of the local use. 
Proitos, 1 who was nearly contemporary with Eurus- 
theus, ruled over Argeians. From the text it would 
seem as if he were a neighbor to Sisuphos, of Ephure 
or Corinth : and if so, his subjects may have been Ar- 
gives of Argolis, taken largely ; of the Eastern, or 
Eastern and Northern, Peloponnesos. Such is evi- 
dently the meaning of Argeioi in the legend of 
the birth of Eurustheus. 2 On the other hand, the 
name of Proitos was attached to one of the Gates of 
Thebes. It was plainly therefore a Phoenician name. 
It is far from clear that he reigned in Thebes ; but, if 
he did so, then the name Argeioi is applicable to the 
inhabitants of Boeotia. This slender probability is 
the only presumption afforded us of the use of the 
name Argeioi beyond the limits of the Perseid or 
Pelopid dominions in Peloponnesos, except as a desig- 
nation for the army before Troy. Again, in the cha- 
riot race of the Twenty-third Iliad, Diomed is described 
as iEtolian by birth, but as ruling among Argeioi. 3 
These, it seems plain, must be the Argives of Argos, 



i D. vi. 159. 2 ii. X i x . 122. 

3 II. xxiii. 471. 



44 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



who formed his contingent. Still, upon this local 
name there had supervened, since the accession of the 
Pelopid dynasty, as we shall find from the legend of 
Tudeus, the paramount and wider name of Achaioi. 1 

The name of Argeioi, then, appears to stand par- 
tially in the same category with Danaoi, as a name 
rather poetic and archaic, than actually current ; and 
as one of which the common application to the Greeks 
in general, at any period, is uncertain ; but which had, 
several generations before, been the proper designation 
at least of the inhabitants of the ruling portion of the 
peninsula. 

This name is, on the other hand, so far unlike the 
Danaan name, that we find it in the singular number 
and the feminine gender. But it is only thus applied 
to two persons ; Helen, and the goddess Here. It is 
plain, as we have seen, that, for the former, it means 
not Greek Helen, but Argive Helen. It is but twice 
given to Here : both times where she is acting with 
Athene in the fourth and fifth Iliad ; 2 in the first pas- 
sage Zeus cites them as helpers of Menelaos, in the sec- 
ond, as having restrained and baffled Ar£s on the field. 
The meaning of Argei^, when applied to a goddess, 
according to analogy, must be, 4 worshipped in Argos,' 
as Aphrodite is called Kuthereia, and Apollo Smintheus. 
The local worship of Here continued, as is well known, 
to characterize Argos throughout the historic period. 
It was to this local point in particular that her tena- 
cious attachment was constantly directed. It survived 
dynastic changes ; watched over Eurustheus ; reap- 
peared in hatred of Heracles ; and protected Agamem- 

i II. iv. 384 ; v. 803. 2 n. i v . 8 ; v. 908. 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 45 

non. Three cities, we know, she loved beyond all 
others : 1 Mycenae, Argos, and Sparta ; and her at- 
tachment to the Greeks in the War possibly may have 
its root in this more special and local affection ; or 
may, on the other hand, be due to the representative 
character of that district as the political centre of the 
whole of Greece. 

If in one point of view, as has been suggested, the 
use of the Argeian name by Homer was poetic and 
archaic, on the other hand, we may compare this 
employment of the designation of the ruling part to 
signify the whole with t^ie cases of more extended em- 
pires. All the races, that served under Xerxes and 
Darius in their expeditions against Greece, were re- 
garded as Persians. The Roman name was applicable 
to the people of Campania or Calabria, as forming 
parts of the Roman dominion ; while in any domestic 
or Italian matter their local name would naturally 
revive. So it may be that, while all the Greeks of 
Homer are Argeians on the field of Troas, a portion of 
them may also be Argeians in the local sense after- 
wards given to Argives ; with regard, like Kadmeians, 
iEtolians, Arcadians, or Locrians, to their own local 
habitation. 

We have thus traced back this, the second of the 
Great Appellatives for the Greek army, to a more an- 
cient and also more limited use for the inhabitants of 
the ruling part of Greece ; but we have still to ask, 
how came it originally to be so applied in either way, 
and what is the root and meaning of the name ? 

Plainly its root is that of the word Argos; and 



i II. iv. 51. 



46 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



plainly also, as we shall find, the application of the 
territorial name Argos is wider than that of its deriva- 
tive. 

There are several forms of geographical expression 
under which Homer appears to signify the entire ter- 
ritory inhabited by Greek races, or subject to Greek 
sway. 

(&) The only word which manifestly, without addi- 
tion of any kind, suffices with the Poet for this purpose 
is Achaiis. It is used either substantively, or adjec- 
tively with ycua or ala, in eight passages. It will suf- 
fice to quote one in which Nestqr describes the gathering 
of the army, a process that manifestly included the 
whole dominion : 

"Xabv ayeipovreg kclt' 'Axatda TcovXvjBoTeipav. 1 

In a line twice used, indeed, it is combined with 
Argos : 

"Apyog eg imroporov ml 'AxaClSa mTdnyvvaiKa? 

But there is no reason why in this line the word should 
not follow what we have seen to be the ruling sense, 
Argos meaning the more famous part, and Achaiis 
meaning the whole. 

(6) A second and compound form of expression, 
evidently conveying, as a compound, the same sense, 
is found in the combination of Argos with Hellas : 

avdpbg, rov Kkeog evpv md' '!£>X?id6a ml fxeaov "Apyog. 3 

The meaning of the line plainly is, a reputation reach- 

1 II. xi. 770. 1 Collecting an army through fertile Achaiis/ Cf. II. 
i. 254 ; vii. 124. 

2 ' Horse-feeding Argos and Achaiis with beautiful women/ 

3 Od. i. 344. ' Whose fame extends through Hellas and mid- 
Argos.' 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



47 



ing over all Greece. It is not conceivable that Pen- 
elope, who uses the phrase more than once, could mean 
to assign to her husband's fame a limit narrower than 
the Greek nationality. But we shall find that the 
name Hellas evidently has a special affinity with the 
north of Greece. Presumably, then, this line may 
mean, 

'Through Northern and through Southern Greece/ * 

(<?) But we find also a third form of expression, in 
which the word Argos, with the affix nav, appears to 
cover the whole, at least, of continental Greece, and 
thus to be equivalent, or nearly so, to Achaiis, and also 
to Hellas combined with Argos t 

TcoKkyuiv vqooiCL Kal "Apye'i iravri avacceiv. 1 

For this line, joining Argos with the islands, describes 
the range of the whole empire, or (to use a modern 
phrase) suzerainty, of Agamemnon. 

(d) Next it appears that we have the word Argos, 
with particular ethnical or tribal affixes, used distribu- 
tively for each of the chief parts of Greece. 

In the Catalogue, after Homer has enumerated all 
the contingents drawn from the Islands, as well as 
from Southern and Middle Greece, he opens a new 
division with the line : 

Nw av Tovg 'ogool to UeTtaayiKov "Apyog ivacov. 1 

And he then proceeds to reckon nine contingents, all 
of which were drawn from Greece north of Mount 
Othrus, or, in other words, from Thessaly. 

1 II. ii. 108. ( To rule over many islands and all Argos/ 

2 II. ii. 681. ' But now (recount) those, as many as inhabited Pe- 
lasgian Argos/ 



V 



48 JUVENTUS MUNDI. 

It appears, then, that by Pelasgic Argos Homer 
meant Thessaly. 

(e) Next we have an Achaiie Argos mentioned in 
five passages. 

In the first 1 (of which the words are repeated in 
the second), Agamemnon is speaking of the return to 
Greece. While the phrase therefore might carry the 
sense of that country at large, it may also very prop- 
erly mean the seat of the Pelopid power, or the Eastern 
Peloponnesos. 

In the third, Here goes to Achaiie Argos 2 to hasten 
the birth of Eurustheus. The meaning appears to be 
that she went to the kingdom of Sthenelos his father, 
which again will mean the Eastern Peloponnesos. 

In the fourth, Telemachos asks where was Menelaos 
whilst Aigisthos was engaged in the work of treachery 
and murder. 6 Was he away from Achaiie Argos, and 
travelling abroad ? ' 3 Here, while Sparta only might 
(as far as the meaning goes) be signified, the sense of 
' Eastern Peloponnesos,' or the 6 Pelopid dominion,' is 
perfectly suitable, and appears to be the true sense of 
the phrase. 

(/) Further we find an lason Argos. Eurumachos, 
the suitor, pays a compliment to the beauty of Pene- 
lope by saying, 6 You would have more suitors than 
you now have,' i.e. than these islands yield you : 

el ttcivtec ae ISoiev av' "laaov "kpyog 'kxaioiA 

He evidently goes beyond the dominions of Odysseus. 
But then he probably speaks only of the territory lying 
nearest to them, and in habitual intercourse with them. 

i II. ix. 141, 283. 2 ii. X i x . us. 3 Od. iii. 249. 

4 ' If all the Achaians of Iasian Argos could see you.' Od. xviii. 
246. 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 49 



Now this was Western Pelopoimesos : as we know 
from the limited range of Greek navigation ; from the 
direct testimony of the Poems, which tell us of the 
journey of Odysseus to Ephure, 1 and of the debt which 
Odysseus went to Messene 2 to recover ; and (not to 
mention other circumstances) from the apprehension 
of the Suitors that Telemachos would at once repair to 
Elis, or to Pulos, 3 for aid. In the same manner the 
relations of Crete were with Eastern Peloponnesos; 
and therefore Helen at Troy easily recognizes Idome- 
neus, because, as she says, she has often seen him in 
Sparta. 4 So far, then, Iasian Argos would seem to 
consist of Western Peloponnesos, including therein the 
dominions of Elis, Pulos, and perhaps parts at least of 
Messene\ 

We have other means of connecting the name of 
Iasos with Western Peloponnesos. For Amphion, the. 
king of the Minue'ian Orchomenos, was the son of 
Iasos. He was also the father of Chloris, whom 
Neleus married, and who became queen of Pulos. 
Now there was a river Minueios 5 between Pulos and 
Elis ; and not only is there an Orchomenos included in 
the places which supplied the Arcadian contingent, 6 but 
also Agamemnon asks of Odysseus, in Hades, whether 
his son Orestes is at Orchomenos, or at Pulos, or at 
Sparta ; 7 as if it were some considerable seat of power 
where a prince might find refuge. Thus Amphion, 
the son of Iasos, is placed in close connection both 
with Bceotia and with Western Peloponnesos. 

Further, Homer acquaints us that he and his brother 



i Od. i. 260. 
3 Od. xxiv. 431. 
5 H. xi. 722. 



6 II. ii. 605. 
4 



2 Od. xxi. 15. 
4 II. iii. 232. 
? Od. xi. 459. 



50 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Zetlios first founded and fortified Thebes ; for, says the 
Poet, not even they could hold it unfortified. 1 As his 
daughter married Neleus, this fortification must have 
been effected from four to five generations before the 
Troica. But he founded no dynasty in Thebes. On 
the contrary, we find from Homer that (Edipus ruled 
there, apparently in succession to his father, two gen- 
erations before the War. 2 And, according to tradition, 
he was the descendant of Kadmos, who had colonized 
Thebes from Phoenicia. It seems very possible that 
Amphion, like so many others, 3 was expelled from the 
fat soil of Boeotia ; that he passed into Western Pelo- 
ponnesos ; and that he carried thither both the names 
of Orchemenos and Minue'ios, which we find undeniably 
existing in that region, and the name Iasos, which thus 
receives a probable and natural application. 

Iasian Argos then is the Western Peloponnesos. 

.And thus moreover we find Argos, with adjuncts, 
running over the three most famous portions of Greece. 
It is the common term in three distinct territorial 
names, as if it meant £ a settlement,' and as if they re- 
spectively signified 

1. Thessaly, the settlement named from the Pelas- 
goi. 

2. Eastern Peloponnesos, the settlement named 
from the Achaioi. 

3. Western Peloponnesos, the settlement named 
from Iasos. 

(#) Further, it is incontestable that Argos some- 
times means the city known in history by that name, or 
rather that city with its immediately contiguous terri- 



1 Od. xi. 264. 



2 Od. xi. 273-276. 



3 Thuc. i. 2. 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



51 



tory : for example, in the Catalogue, 1 where it is men- 
tioned with Tiruns and other places, as making up the 
contingent of Diomed ; and where it is named with 
Mycenae and Sparta as being together the favorite 
cities of Here Qrol^eg'). The word polis does not 
indeed invariably include a district ; for in certain 
cases we find it used for the town, in opposition to 
agros, the country. 2 But this seems to be the only 
case where the word is applied to Argos. We have a 
similar use, when, as Telemachos is quitting Sparta, 
he is joined by Theoclumenos, 4 a fugitive from Argos.' 3 

On the other hand, the signification, though still 
local, must be enlarged where Agamemnon says that 
Briseis shall pass her life at his palace ' in Argos,' 4 
since the city of Argos was under the sway of Diomed, 
and the residence of Agamemnon was at Mycenae. 
The same will hold good of the passage in which 
Ephure, afterwards Corinth, is described as situate in a 
nook of horse-feeding Argos, iiviw"AQyzog Inno^oxoio^ 

The epithet ' horse-feeding ' has the effect of showing 
that the country designated is a plain country. Thus 
the island of Ithaca is described as a goat-feeding 6 
spot, and more beautiful than a horse-feeding district. 
Of course the phrase is to be understood by com- 
parison. 

(5) Lastly, there are one or two passages in which 
the name Argos may be held to stand alone for Greece 
at large : as when Nestor declares it shameful for the 
army to return to Argos <^Aq)>o6§z UvaU~) before the 
mind of Zeus is known. And Poludamas, speaking 



1 II. ii. 559. 
3 Ocl. xv. 224. 
6 Od. iv. 606. 



* II. xxiii. 832, 835 ; Od. xvii. 182. 
4 II. i. 80. 5 ii. V i. 152. 

7 II. ii. 348. 



52 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



of the possible destruction of the Greek army in Troas, 
thus describes that contingency : 

vovvfivovg unoliioOai art "Apyeog kvdad' 'Axaiovg. 1 

Paris, too, says he brought home property from Argos. 
This may mean from Sparta as part of the Pelopid 
dominion ; or it may mean from Greece at large. But 
perhaps we cannot be sure that in these passages Argos 
stands for more than a description of the whole by its 
capital part. 

Argos, then, with Homer has these four uses : 

1. It may be held to mean, alone or with nav, Greece 
at large ; but, if so, it is rarely thus used. 

2. It may mean the Pelopid dominions, or, taken 
roughly, the Eastern Peloponnesos. 

3. It may mean the city of Argos, with the imme- 
diately surrounding district attached to it. In this 
sense it accepts the epithet Ttolvdlwiov : and the epithets 
MTtoftorov, Ttolmvqov, and ovdotQ doovQfjg, appear to apply 
to it both in this and in the lastrnamed sense. 

4. When joined with distinctive epithets of an his- 
torical, not a physical, character, it seems to be ap- 
plicable to most portions of Greek territory, as if a 
radical signification, such as settlement, or colony in 
the original sense of the word, still adhered to it. 

When we proceed to examine the etymology of the 
word, we find that, as it is but once combined with 
polis, so the epithets attaching to it (as above), all of 
them indicate a tract of country ; like 6 land ' among 
the Scotch, as in the expression 6 landward parishes.' 
And again, on comparing it with agros, the proper 

1 II. xii. 70. ' That the Achaians perish inglorious away from 
Argos.' 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



53 



term for describing a rural tract, this latter appears to 
be the very same word with the middle consonants 
transposed. So far, then, the meaning may be that of 
a tract of land suited for, or brought under, culti 
vation. 

The Homeric names of countries and places, as far 
as we can trace them, appear to be derived — 

1. From an individual founder : as Ithake from Itha- 
kos, Dardanie from Dardanos. 1 

2. From a race in occupation or in ascendancy : 
as Acha'iis from Achaoi, Crete or Cretai, from 
Cretes. 2 

3. From a race in occupation, which race has itself 
derived its name from features or circumstances of the 
country: as Threke from Threkes, Thracians ; the 
race in turn taking a name related to the rough char- 
acter of a highland country, and probably proceeding 
from the same root with tQtjxvg. So again, Aigialeia 
from the Aigialeis, these being named from Aigia- 
1 o s, the strip of coast afterwards called Achaia. 

4. From these local features or physical incidents 
directly, like Aigialos: or like Euboie, which ap- 
parently signifies the adaptation of that fertile island 
to tillage ; an adaptation which afterwards made it the 
granary of Athens. 

It is plain, negatively, that the word Argos has no 
connection with any of the three first-named sources. 
The suggestion already made would attach it to the 
fourth. It would then apply to Argos of the Eastern 
Peloponnesos, as the Argos aat' llopjv. 

The word argos is used adjectively by Homer for 

1 Od. xvii. 207 ; II. xx. 216. 2 Qd. xiv. 199. 



/ 



54 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



dogs, II. i. 50 ; for oxen, II. xxiii. 30 ; and for a goose, 
Od. xv. 161. And we have these compounds into 
which it enters : 



The sense of whiteness or brightness may apply to 
every one of these uses, both primitive and derivative : 
but whiteness or brightness could only be applicable to 
such districts of country as might be chalky or sandy ; 
and this sense therefore will in no way assist us to- 
wards an explanation of the territorial name Argos 
with its very wide application. 

If Argos have a connection with egyov, then it at 
once admits the sense of an extent of land tilled or 
suitable for tillage, a sense nearly akin, though not 
similar in etymology, to that of the word 4 lowlands.' 
For ergon in Homer, while it is applicable to indus- 
trial operations generally, is primarily and specially 
applied to agriculture. 1 

We can, then, conceive how, out of many districts, 
all fitly described as lowlands, in one, from being 
merely a description, it would become a proper name ; 
and how, at the next stage in the process, it would 
give a designation to its inhabitants. In accordance 
with this supposition, we have more than one Argos in 
Homer : and in the historic period we have Argos of 
Orestisin Macedonia, Argos of Amphilochia in Western 
Greece, and Argos near Larissa in Thessaly. But 
only one Argos is inhabited by Argeioi. Just as there 



1. apyrjg (nepavvog). 

2. upytKepavvog. 

3. apyeorr/g (Ndrof). 

4. upyevvat oteg, bdovai. 



5. apyivoeig (Ku/ueipog) . 

6. apytodovTeg (veg). 

7. upymoSeg (nvveg). 

8. Hodupyrjg, a horse of Achilles. 



1 Od. vi. 259. 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



55 



are Highlands of Saxony no less than of Scotland, but 
only the Scotch mountaineers acquired the name of 
Highlanders, as a standing and ordinary name. 

In referring Argos to a common root and signifi- 
cance with EQyov, we are not bound to hold that it at- 
tains its initial vowel by junction with the particle a in 
its intensive, or in any other, sense. For we have the 
word ergon, and also its derivatives, in this form, 
handed down from very ancient Greek. Among the 
four tribes of Attica, which subsisted until the time of 
Cleisthenes, one was that of the husbandmen, called 
Argades. And in the Elian Inscription, supposed to 
date about the fortieth Olympiad, or more than six 
hundred years before Christ, we have the word 
ergon, in the form argon with the digamma, as 
follows — 

aire feTtog aire fapyov} 

Another probable example of the exchange of these 
vowels is in aroo, to plough, compared with era, 
the earth. In the Latin tongue we find both forms 
preserved, in aro, to plough, and sero, to sow, re- 
spectively. 

We need not here inquire what is the common root 
of zQyov and of Argos. But, if labor be the idea con- 
veyed, this may perhaps suggest a meaning for the 
Homeric adjective argos and for all its compounds. 
The groundwork of that meaning may be conveyed by 
the word 4 strenuous.' Sometimes this takes the form 
of keenness, and then follows the idea of swiftness : 
sometimes it takes the form of a persevering patience, 
and then slowness is not less appropriately suggested. 

1 Museum Criticum, i. 536 ; and Marsh, Horse Pelasgicee, p. 70. 



56 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



The labor of a dog is swift, that of an ox is patient : 
hence we have laborious oxen, moving slow ; laborious 
dogs, moving fast. The sense of whiteness legiti- 
mately attaches to the effect of rapid motion on the 
eye. This explanation will perhaps be found to suit 
all the diversified phrases which have been cited above. 

And (reverting to the fountain-head), we perceive 
that the notion of strenuous labor will adapt itself 
to other uses of Argos. We may consider the name of 
the ship Argo as meaning possibly ' swift,' but prefer- 
ably 4 stout,' able to do battle with the waves, as we 
now say a good or a gallant ship. Again, this sense 
suits, far more fully than the mere idea of speed, the 
noble dog Argos of the Odyssey ; for whom mere 
whiteness would be a vapid description. Once more, 
we have in the AQyeicpovr^g of Homer a glimpse of the 
tradition of Argos the spy, to whom we naturally 
ascribe a strenuous vigilance. The epithet agyakzog, 
i hard or difficult to cope with,' follows in the train : 
while the later word dgyovvreg, 1 c idle,' takes up the idea 
of slowness at the point where it passes into inertness. 

When we turn from Argos to its derivative Argeioi, 
we find subsidiary evidence to the effect that the word 
properly meant a husbandman, a rustic. In Suidas 2 
we have the proverb Jigyuovg oQag, 6 You see Argeioi,' 
with the explanation TtaQoifiia hti %m drsvoog xat xata- 
TtlfjatLxwg oqojvtwv. 2 Now we know nothing of the 
Argives as inhabitants of Argolis, which would lead 
to the belief that they stared hard, or conveyed alarm 
by their looks. But if the word Argeioi meant husband- 

1 Soph. Fr. 288. 2 Suid. in voce. 

3 ' A proverb concerning people who stare hard and whose looks 
cause alarm/ 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



57 



men, then, as the population, instead of living dis- 
persedly in hamlets (xoo/^oV) gathered into towns, 
the rural part of the community would gradually 
become also the ruder part, and from this point the 
transition is easy to the sense of a wild and savage 
aspect. 

The Latin word agrestis stands to ager as 
Argeios, according to the foregoing argument, stands 
to Argos. The agrestis, or countryman, was op- 
posed to the urbanus, or townsman. The latter, with 
its Greek correlative aarziog, came by degrees to mean 
a person of polished manners ; but agrestis, following 
the movement I have supposed in the case of Argeios, 
came to mean coarse, wild, barbarous. Thus Ovid 
says of the River Acheloos, when mutilated by the 
loss of his horn in the combat with Heracles, 

' Vultus Achelous agrestes 
Et lacerum cornu mediis caput abdidit undis.' 1 

And Cicero, after describing the battles of the Spartan 
youth, carried on with nails and teeth as well as fists 
and feet, asks, 4 Quae barbaries Indica vastior atque 
agrestior ? ' 2 

Again, Suidas gives us the expression ^QyeToif which 
he says is used for sheer villains, because the Argeioi 
are held up in plays as noted thieves ; for which he 
refers to a lost play of Aristophanes. According to 
the view I have given, the word may well mean robbers, 
since theft in the early stages of society always fre- 
quents solitary places. 

Again, iEschines 4 charges Demosthenes with gross 



1 Ov. Met. ix. 96. 

3 In voc. 'Apyelot Qupeg, 



2 Cic. Tusc. Disp. v. 27. 

4 De Falsa Legat. p. 41, 1. 14. 



58 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



offences, which had brought upon him disparaging 
nicknames. One of these was Argas ; which Suidas 
and Hesychius explain as the name of a snake, signi- 
fying sharp and crafty. But iEschines say she was 
called Argas, each of his guardians having suits against 
him to recover money. So that the meaning would be 
6 crafty in getting hold of the money of others,' homo 
trium liter 'arum , a sharper. 

Once more. Hesychius on the name Argeioi says, 
Ix rwv Eiltotcov ol marevo^evoi ovtwg eXsyovro, rj XapTtQOi, 
6 those Helots distinguished for fidelity are so called.' 
Why was it that select and confidential Helots thus 
received the name of Argeioi? That name may 
have retained its local force, as applicable to the whole 
Pelopid dominion, long after Homer : and it may also, 
apart from its use as a proper name, have borne the 
meaning of a free or ordinary agricultural settler. 
The Helot was a serf by the fortune of war ; but he 
was a serf whose forefathers had, according to this 
view, been Argeioi. If then a Helot made himself 
conspicuous, and acquired the confidence of his lord by 
fidelity and smartness, it would seem a very natural 
reward to efface from him the brand of his captivity, 
and give him the old name of the free countryman of 
that part of Greece. In this case Argeios might mean 
a libertus, without a defined formula of emancipation. 

It is worth remark that the cognate word agrios 
appears to have gone through the same process as 
agrestis and Argeios. For there was an iEtolian 
prince Agrios, 1 a grand-uncle of Diomed, two genera- 
tions before the War of Troy. In the contemporary 



i II. xiv. 117. 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



59 



language of the Poet, Agrios had come to mean savage 
and cruel, and is so applied to Poluphemos. 1 The in- 
termediate meaning probably was that of a dweller in 
a wild and unsettled place. The word is never used 
to describe the passion, or the cruelty, of Achilles. 

It should also be noted that Argeioi, where applied 
to the Greeks at large, never means the chiefs, but 
always the mass ; whereas the word Achaios has, as 
we shall see, in many places a decided leaning 
towards the aristocracy. Epithets are scarcely ever 
given by Homer to the Argeian name. Only in four 
passages do they appear. In II. iv. 242 they are Io^qoi. 
and hlsyx&g, 'dishonored ; ' in II. xiv. 479 Io^ojqoi^ 2 and 
amildar u-Aogritoi. These are, in each case, not descrip- 
tive epithets attaching to or indicating general charac- 
ter, but reproaches growing out of the occasion. In 
II. xxi. 429 they are daQjjxzoi', clad in breastplates, 
which, from the context, seems to do no more than 
state a fact : the phrase is equivalent to ' the Greeks 
in arms/ In II. xix. 269, the Argeioi are called 
yiXoTttolziAoi, lovers of battle ; and this appears to be the 
sole passage in which an epithet of description, pro- 
perly so called, is attached to the word. But the 
Danaan name, though more rarely used, has epithets 
in twenty-two passages ; and the Achaian name in 
nearly 130. This circumstance tends to show, that 
the Argeian name properly belongs to the commonalty 
or masses, rather than to the chiefs. 

We have assumed above, in accordance with the 

1 Od. ix. 215, 494. 

2 I render lofiupoi, not archers, a sense neither suited to the passage 
nor to the general armament of the Greeks, who were not, as a rule, 
archers ; but braggarts, loud talkers, in close harmony with the sister- 
phrase aneihauv anoprjToi — insatiate of boasts. 



60 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



general Greek tradition, that the Pelasgoi were the 
first agricultural settlers of the peninsula ; but that 
their name, and any other cognate names, were sup- 
pressed or thrown into the shade by the dynastic name, 
which a Danaos probably gave to his people. That 
name, again, naturally disappearing with the accession 
of another line to his throne and dominions, the name 
Argeioi, taken either from the occupation of the 
people (like Argades), or from the settlement they 
had made, would take its place with great propriety, 
in lieu of reverting to the Pelasgic name, which would 
silently pass out of use, as that of a race conquered and 
therefore comparatively depressed. 

The third and most weighty of the Great Appella- 
tives is Achaioi. 

The evidence of the Poems will I think suffice to 
show — 

1. That this is the most familiar designation of the 
Greeks of Homer. 

2. That the manner of its use indicates, among the 
Greeks of Homer, the political predominance of an 
Aclraian race over other races ranged by its side in the 
War, and composing along with it the nation which 
owned Agamemnon for its head. 

3. That, besides its national use, the name of the 
Achaioi has a local use in many parts of Greece. 

4. That the manner of this local use points out with 
sufficient clearness, that the rise of the Achaian name 
was contemporary with that of the family of Pelops. 

The first proposition may be at once settled by the 
rude, but not inconclusive, test of numbers. While 
the Danaan name is used about 160 times, of which 
thirteen are in the Odyssey; and the Argeian 205 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 61 

times, of which twenty-eight are in the Odyssey ; the 
Achaian name is used about 597 times in the Iliad, and 
117 in the Odyssey, making 714 in all. This fre- 
quency of use in the two poems of itself goes far to 
determine that the Achaian designation was the most 
modern of the three. 

It is also worth observing, that in the opening of the 
Iliad the word Achaioi is used five times, before Danaoi 
or Argeioi are introduced at all. 

We have seen that the Danaan name is never used 
in the singular ; and that the Argeian name is so used 
only in its local sense. But the Achaian name, and 
that only, is used in the singular to designate an in- 
dividual as belonging to the nation ; with the reserve, 
however, of a separate shade of meaning, sometimes 1 
tending to attach it to a class. So the Poet uses 
dagdavog avijq 2 for a Trojan or a Dardanian. 

Again, Homer has worked this name into the female 
forms Achaiides, Achaiiades, Achaiai, to sig- 
nify the women of Greece ; but has made no such use 
of the Danaan or Argeian 3 names. 

Also the phrase vhg 'Aiaiwv, sons of the Achaians, 
has no correlation with the Danaan or Argeian names, 
and further helps to show the predominant familiarity 
of this designation. What the patronymic was to the 
individual, this form of speech was to the nation — an 
appeal to a standard of honor, an incentive under the 
form of an embellishment. 

Epithets are given to the name Achaioi in 130 
places, besides eight or ten more in which they are 
used either for the women, or for the word in its 
territorial sense. And the familiar use of the word 



i U. iii. 167, 226. 



2 II. ii. 701. 



3 Supra, pp. 36, 44. 



62 



JUYENTUS MUNDI. 



Achaiis for the country is a proof of the prevalence, 
ascendancy, and familiarity of the name, which was 
thus applied on its own merits, so to speak, and not, 
like Argos, because it was the proper designation of 
the most eminent part of the country. 

When we look to the character of these epithets, we 
find them such as point to the Achaians in the charac- 
ter of a dominant race or aristocracy. 

In one or two cases we have epithets of reproach, 
such as were addressed to the army at critical mo- 
ments : dvalmdeg, II. XV. 326 ; aTtsihjz^Qsg, II. vii. 96, 
and in the same passage Idxattdeg. In a few others we 
have them as simple descriptions of circumstances of 
the moment. 1 But the pointed epithets, descriptive 
of character, are as follows : — 

1. 8ioi, worthy or noble : II. v. 451 ; Od. iii. 116, et alibi. 

2. shxwTteg, from the rapid motion of the eye giving bright- 
ness : II. iii. 239, et alibi. 

3. ivxvTjpidsg, stoutly-greaved : II. iii. 304 ; Od. iii. 149, 
and in thirty-two other places. 

4. ijQCjeg, heroes: II. xii. 165, et alibi. 

5. xaQrjxoiAOcovreg, with flowing or abundant hair: II. ii. 11 ; 
Od. i. 90, and in twenty-seven other places. 

6. lAEyddvfAOi, high-spirited : II. i. 123", 135 ; Od. xxiv. 57. 

7. (i&'vsa Ttveiovreg, ardent : II. iii. 8. 

8. %odxoxvtj[itdEg, with greaves of ialx.bg or copper : II. vii. 
41. 

9. %alxo%k<m>£g, with armor for tunics : II. i. 371 ; Od. i. 
286, and in twenty-two other places. 

10. v7teQxvdavt8gs exulting: II. iv. 66, 71. 

11. dorjcpiloi, lovers of war: II. vi. 73; xvi. 303; xvii. 
319. 

12. qnloTtrolsfioi, lovers of battle : II. xvii. 224. 

1 II. xii. 29 ; xiii. 15 ; xv. 44. 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



63 



These epithets are very marked in character ; they 
describe courage, personal beauty, well-made and well- 
finished arms, or excellence generally. 

The epithets given to Danaoi are exclusively those 
of a soldiery: those of Achaioi are more extended, 
and seem to extend to nobility of race. 

The epithet dios is, in my opinion, wrongly trans- 
lated i divine ; ' and much confusion arises from the 
attempt to apply that sense to the various uses of the 
word. But if we understand it to mean a limited or 
special excellence, excellence in its own kind, we have 
no difficulty in understanding how Eumaios 1 and Cly- 
temnestra 2 can both receive it, the one for his trusty 
character, the other, the sister of Helen, for her beauty. 
There is, however, one other sense which might be 
given to it, that of high-born, well-descended, which 
perhaps would not be less adapted to all the cases of 
its use. 

In the plural, Homer applies it to Achaians and 
Pelasgians only. This rare use supplies a presumption 
of some peculiar meaning ; and it may be thought that 
the Achaians are dm because both of their blood and 
of their power and predominance, the Pelasgians be- 
cause of their antiquity. 

It is Thersites, who in the Second Iliad attempts to 
stir up the soldiery by calling them Achaiides, or 
she-Greeks. It is to be noted, that in his short speech, 
of which an inflated presumption is the principal mark, 
the Achaian name is used five times within nine lines, 
and neither of the other names is used at all. In two 
of these cases, the speaker pointedly calls himself an 
Achaian. Probably the upstart and braggart uses this 



Od. xiv. 48, and in ten other places. 



2 Od. iii. 266. 



64 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



name only because it was the most distinguished or 
aristocratic name, as an ill-bred person always takes 
peculiar care to call himself a gentleman. 

There are, however, numerous single passages, in 
which the simple term Achaioi appears from the 
context to have a special, sometimes perhaps even an 
exclusive reference to the chiefs and leaders, or to the 
officers and higher class, of the army. And if this 
be so, then we must consider the national use of the 
name as derivative like that of Argeioi, the whole 
being named from the prime part ; but with this differ- 
ence, that in the case of Achaioi it is the prime blood 
of the country, in that of Argeioi the prime seat of 
power. 

The injured priest, Chruses, solicits all the Achaioi, 
and most of all the two Atridai. All the Achaians 
. assent, except Agamemnon. 1 There is no sign that 
he solicited the army. In. truth, this could only be 
done in an Assembly ; and there was no Assembly. 
It follows, that the Achaioi here mean the chiefs. 
But when Chruses invokes the vengeance of the god 
upon the army at large, the phrase alters to Danaoi. 2 
The actual division of booty is, from the nature of 
the case, a matter that must have rested principally or 
wholly in the hands of the chiefs. When this matter 
is referred to, Agamemnon says, Do not let me, alone 
of the Argeians, that is, of all the Greeks, go with- 
out a prize ; 3 and Nestor uses the same word, when 
he stimulates the army at large by the hope of booty. 4 
But Achilles replies to Agamemnon that the Achaians 
have no means of compensating him 5 there and then, 
since they hold no common stock in reserve. The 

i II. i. 15, 22, 26-32. 2 n. i. 42. s n. i. H8. 

4 II. ii. 350-356. 5 11. i. 123. 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



65 



phrase is the same in subsequent passages. 1 So far 
then the Achaian name seems to fall especially to the 
chiefs. 

The same leaning may be observed, when reference 
is made to other governing duties. Achilles, in his 
adjuration by the staff or sceptre, the symbol of gov- 
erning power, describes it as borne by the sons of the 
Achaians, obviously the kings, chiefs, or persons in au- 
thority. 

When Priam on the wall of Troy inquires from 
Helen the names of two prominent commanders, he 
both times asks, who is that Achaian ? 2 and in the 
second case, the king describes him as out-topping the 
Argeians by his head and his broad shoulders. Here 
the Achaian seems to mean the prince or noble ; the 
Argeians, the soldiery at large. Indeed, the words are 
hardly susceptible of any other construction ; and they 
seem almost to warrant of themselves the conclusion 
that the Achaian name is properly that of a dominant 
race, grown, generally speaking, into a class, and pos- 
sibly including others of that class, although not of 
Achaian descent. 

In the historic ages of Greece, the Achaian name 
acquired a local force, similar to that of the Argive 
name, in exclusive, or almost exclusive, connection 
with one particular district. We cannot say that it 
has in this sense, if strictly taken, a local use in Homer. 
Yet we find the Achaians in many parts of Greece men- 
tioned in such a way, as to distinguish them from other 

1 II. i. 135, 162, 392 ; ii. 227. In II. ii. 256, the giving is by the 
rjpues Aavao'i. The passage has the obelos ; but it is not out of har- 
mony with my argument. 

2 II. iii. 167, 226. 

5 



66 



JUYENTUS MUNDI. 



inhabitants of the country, either in the same or in 
neighboring tracts. 

1. We have already, seen that the name Achaioi 
had come into use among the people of Mycenae and 
of Argos a generation before the War ; and that it is 
used of them in contradistinction to the Kadmeioi of 
Boeotia. 1 At earlier epochs they are called Argeioi ; 
but we are not to suppose that this name had fallen 
into local desuetude, even though the other might be 
more in vogue. We shall see that the Myrmidons of 
Achilles afford us an example of a race, or body, who 
bore more names than one. 

2. It has also been shown that, in the legend of 
the Eleventh Iliad about the Epeian War, the Pulian 
party are called Achaians at the period of the youth 
of Nestor ; and this in apparent contradistinction to 
their opponents, who therefore were not Achaian at 
all at that time, or not Achaian in the same eminent 
sense. 

3. The troops of Achilles, always called Myrmidons 
among the other divisions of the army in the field, in- 
habited, as we find from the Catalogue, Hellas and 
Phthie, 2 and bore, evidently with some distinctive 
force, the name of Hellenes, and likewise that of 
Achaioi. 3 In the Ninth Iliad, Achilles describes the 
women of the same tract of country as Achaiides. 4 
On the origin of the name 6 Myrmidon,' which this 
division of the army had wholly to itself, Homer 
throws no light. Hellenes they were, as inhabitants 
of Hellas 5 in the special sense of the word. And as 

i II. iv. 384 ; v. 803 ; vi. 223. 2 II. ii. 683. 

3 11= ii. 684. 4 ii. ix . 395 

6 See infra, Chap. IV. 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



67 



the Achaian name in Homer is not territorial, we 
must suppose them to have borne it in virtue of their 
blood, the Myrmidons being probably a subdivision of 
the great Achaian family. 

4. Of the five races 1 who inhabited Crete at the time 
of the Troica, four were named Eteocretes, Pelasgoi, 
Kudones, and Dorieis : the fifth, which is named first, 
perhaps by reason of political predominance, was Acha- 
ian. The appearance in this passage of the Dorian 
name, together with the Achaian, subdivides, more 
pointedly than any other passage in the Poems, the 
Hellenic family. 

5. Again, a portion of the force of Diomed is de- 
scribed as composed of those ' who held iEgina and 
Mases, Achaian youths.' 2 The site of Mases appears 
to be unknown. But tradition, according to Pausanias, 
gave the name of Pelops to the small islands off the 
coast of Troizen. 3 Such a tradition corresponds re- 
markably with the indirect testimony of the verse 
I have quoted, if there be a relation, as I suppose, be- 
tween the rise of the family of Pelops and the predom- 
inance of the Achaians. 

6. On turning to the dominions of Odysseus, we 
find that three names are used to describe their in- 
habitants : Kephallenes, Ithakesioi, and Achaioi. 

The first is used four times in the Odyssey, 4 and is 
the distinctive name in the Iliad of the military con- 
tingent led by Odysseus. We shall find that it ap- 
pears to indicate the predominance of the Hellenic ele- 
ment. 5 

1 Od. xix. 175-177. 2 n. n 552. 

3 Paus. ii. 34. 4, p. 191. 4 Od. xx. 210 ; xxiv. 354, 377, 428. 
5 Infra, Chap. IV. 



68 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



The suitors 1 are ordinarily called 'A%aio[, never 
AgysToi or Javaol. They constituted the aristocracy 
of the islands. It appears that either they were an 
Achaian race, or else they were called Achaian because 
they were an aristocracy. 

The sway of Odysseus appears to have depended 
upon his personal qualities. Like his father Laertes, 2 
he was both a conqueror and an economist. Accord- 
ingly, his long absence is fatal to his power ; though 
Menelaos, after an absence almost as long, 3 resumed 
his throne without impediment. When Odysseus re- 
appears, his final proceedings against the Suitors are 
attended with precautions, evidently dictated by his 
fear of the people. And in the Assembly of the last 
Book, whilst more than one half take up arms against 
him, 4 the rest simply remain neutral : he has no posi- 
tive aid to rely on, except that of his father, his son, 
and a mere handful of immediate dependants. Dur- 
ing his absence the Suitors are ruining him, but are 
not said to oppress the people. All this looks as if his 
family was perhaps of foreign or extraneous origin, 
and in any case had recently attained to power. 

Autolucos, the maternal grandfather of Odysseus, 
resided at Parnesos in Phokis : 5 Penelope has no 
trace of connection with Southern Greece : her sister 
Iphthime was married to Eumelos, heir-apparent of 
Pherai in Thessaly. 6 Of Arkeisios, the father of 
Laertes, with whom the genealogy begins, we have no 
trace in Ithaca. But we do hear of an eponymist or 
founder, Ithacos, 7 who, with Neritos the eponymist of 

i Od. ii. 51 ; xvi. 122. 2 Od. xxiy. 205-207, 377. 

3 Od. iv. 82. 4 Od. xxiv. 463. 

5 Od. xix. 394. 6 Od. iv. 798. 

7 Od. xvii. 203-207. 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



69 



the chief mountain of the island, and Poluctor, con- 
structed the fountain, from which the city was supplied 
with water. A descendant of this Poluctor, probably 
his son, by name Peisandros, 1 appears, with the title 
of an ax, among the leading Suitors. He may not im- 
possibly have represented a family, displaced by Laertes 
from the sovereignty, of this island dominion. I say by 
Laertes, because if Arkeisios had founded the sover- 
eignty in Ithaca, it appears probable that Odysseus 
would have taken his patronymic from that personage, 
and not from his father. 

But, apart from the question to what root the family 
of Odysseus is to be referred, it seems plain that either 
the Suitors, being the aristocracy, were Achaian in 
blood ; or, because they were the aristocracy, they fell 
under the designation of Achaians. 

When the mass of the people are gathered in As- 
sembly, they are invariably addressed, not as Achaioi, 
but as Ithakesioi. 2 And when, instead of the inhabi- 
tants of the island, the subjects throughout the domin- 
ion are spoken of, they are called Kephallenes, the 
name always given to the military division in the 
Iliad. 3 

When the Suitor Eurumachos expresses a misgiving 
lest, in lieu of Penelope, it should prove he would 
have done more wisely in courting some other dame, 
he says there are many (other) Achaiides 4 in Ithaca, 
and in the other territories. This must surely refer to 
women of noble birth. 

It is true that, in the Second Odyssey, Telemachos 
summons 4 the Achaians ' to the Assembly. 5 But we 

1 Od. xviii. 299. 2 Od. ii. 25, 161, 229 ; xxiv. 453, 531. 

3 Qd. xxiv. 354. * Od. xxi. 251. 5 Od. ii. 7. 



70 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



find in Scherie that principal persons only seem to 
have been summoned man by man, 1 though all classes 
usually attended. Again, in the Ithacan Assembly ot 
the Twenty-fourth Book, Eupeithes complains of the 
harm Odysseus has done the Achaians. 2 The Suitors, 
whom he has slain, were (he says) far and away, the 
aQimoi, the aristocracy, of the Kephallenes. This is 
exactly conformable to the view I have taken. When 
Eupeithes ceases, we are told that pity seized all the 
Achaians. 3 This seems to mean the party of the 
Suitors, those allied with them by blood or interest, or 
near them in station. For, shortly after, the Assem- 
bly divides, part taking arms against Odysseus, and 
part, by the advice of Halitherses, remaining neutral. 

We have also to consider the word Panachaioi. 
It is used eleven times in Homer. We cannot take it 
for a mere synonym of Achaioi. Seven times out 
of the eleven, it appears in the expression aQiatTjsg 
llavaxaiojv. In conformity with the sense of the word 
reav, we may assign to the compound a cumulative and 
collective force : so that Panachaioi would mean the 
entire body of the Achaians, or all classes of the Greeks. 
In the other passages 4 where the word occurs, this 
sense is very suitable, and especially in the passage of 
the Iliad where Odysseus, interceding with Achilles, 
says, ' If you do not care for Agamemnon, yet pity 
the Panachaioi/ or the Greeks at large. 5 

I have now collected the particulars connected with 
the use of the three Great Appellatives in Homer, and 
presented them to the reader sufficiently, as I hope, 



i Od. viii. 10. 2 Od. xxiv. 426. 

4 II. ix. 301 : Od. i. 239 ; xiv. 369 ; xxiv. 32. 



3 Od. xxiv. 438. 
5 II. ix. 300. 



THE THREE GREAT APPELLATIVES. 



71 



for certain purposes. These purposes are, first to 
establish in their due order the succession of the 
periods at which they had respectively obtained some 
root in the country : next to show that the most 
proper national name of the Greeks at the time of 
Homer, the name most nearly approaching to what we 
mean by a national name, was that of the Achaioi : 
thirdly, to exhibit, as the specific shades of mean- 
ing . attaching to the three Appellatives respectively, 

(1) for Danaoi, the soldiery, the people in warfare; 

(2) for Argeioi, the masses, the people engaged in 
tillage ; (3) for Achaioi, the chiefs or aristocracy, the 
people regarded through the governing class. 

This class, and the race that formed it, appear to me 
to be entitled to a more separate and concentrated 
attention than it has as yet received in the investiga- 
tion of Greek history. It forms a distinct type of 
Hellenic character, the earliest in time, and certainly 
not the least remarkable in grandeur or in complete- 
ness. The Greek of Homer is neither the man of 
Athens nor the man of Sparta : he is neither cast in 
the Dorian nor in the Ionian pattern : he is the 
Achaian Greek. Simple, and yet shrewd ; passionate, 
and yet self-contained ; brave in battle, and gentle in 
converse ; keenly living in the present, yet with a 4 large 
discourse ' over the future and the past ; as he is in 
body 6 full-limbed and tall,' so is he in mind towering 
and full-formed. His portrait could never have been 
drawn but from the life : and, disregarding what I con- 
ceive to have been the figments of the first renaissance 
after the wild and rude Dorian revolution, I set down 
Homer himself as the Achaian painter of his own kith 
and kin. 



72 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



It will however be requisite to inquire, 

1. What light can be thrown on the origin of the 
Achaian name through the growth of the power that 
brought it into vogue. 

2. How it was superseded; and what place the 
three Appellatives respectively occupy in the later 
tradition and literature. 

But this will best be done after we have examined 
and illustrated, as far as may be, the Homeric use of 
other national and tribal names, especially four of 
them, which, though of much rarer occurrence, are 
of an importance scarcely second to the names already 
discussed. These are — 

1. Pelasgoi. 

2. Hellenes. 

3. Phoinikes. 

4. Aiolidai. 

We may then sketch in outline the relative position 
of the families or races respectively embraced by these 
Appellatives, and consider what they severally contrib- 
uted to the formation of the great Greek nationality. 



CHAPTER III. 



The Pelasgoi. 

Respecting the Pelasgoi, we have some direct and 
some indirect testimony from Homer. And we have 
also certain supplements to this Homeric informa- 
tion — 

(1) In the later Greek and classical tradition ; 

(2) In the results of modern ethnological and archae- 
ological research. 

The direct testimony of Homer establishes — 

The wide extension of the Pelasgoi. 

The country afterwards called Thessaly bears in the 
Iliad the name of Pelasgic Argos. 3 It furnished to the 
Greek army nine contingents, and 280 ships, or about 
one fourth of the entire fleet. And this seems to be 
the only name which it bears as a whole. The line, in 
which this name is given, is evidently prefatory to the 
great Thessalian division of the Catalogue. 2 Pelasgic 
Argos appears to be included with other countries in 
the wider name of Hellas ; a name which probably 
may also have had an especial application to the part 



i II. ii. 681. 



2. Studies on Homer, vol. i. pp. 100-105. 



74 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



of Thessaly ruled by Peleus, and inhabited by the Myr- 
midons. 

It further appears, from the Odyssey, that the Pelas- 
goi were one of the five nations of Crete. 1 

And we learn from the Trojan Catalogue in the 
Second Iliad, that the Pelasgoi of Larissa served in the 
War among the allies of Troy. 2 

The facts thus exhibited, though few and simple, 
indicate the wide extension of the Pelasgoi, who thus 
appear on both sides, in a war which draws the armies 
engaged in it from so considerable an extent of coun 
try. 

But further; Zeus, the Zeus of Dodona, the Zeus 
served by Hellic interpreters of his will, is, in the most- 
solemn invocation of the Iliad, addressed as Pelasgic 
Zeus 3 by Achilles, the greatest representative of the 
Hellenic mind and life. 

This was at a period of .complete and well estab- 
lished Hellenic predominance. The name Pelasgicos 
is, then, evidently an archaic name of Zeus ; and it is 
not easy to see how he could have received it, unless 
the inhabitants of the country from Dodona, at least 
as far as the kingdom of Peleus, had been known as 
Pelasgoi. The concurrent evidence of this passage 
with that of the line in which all Thessaly is called 
Pelasgic Argos, appears to demonstrate that Thessaly 
had formerly been known as a country of Pelasgoi, 
and that these Pelasgoi were worshippers of Zeus. 

Accordingly, of the nine Thessalian contingents, 
seven are described by the places they inhabit, without 
any national or tribal name. It is probable that in 



i Od. xix. 177. 



2 II. ii. 840. 



3 II. xvi. 233. 



THE PELASGOI. 



75 



these districts the Pelasgian name had not yet been 
superseded by any other designation for the purposes 
of familiar use. The only territorial name used in 
this part of the Catalogue, besides Pelasgic Argos, is 
in the case of the eminently Hellenic dominions of 
Peleus. 

When Homer names the Pelasgoi of the Trojan 
Catalogue, he describes them as those Pelasgoi who 
inhabited the deep-loamed Larissa. 1 He therefore dis- 
tinguishes them from other Pelasgoi. But he cannot 
possibly mean, in composing for a Greek audience, to 
distinguish them from the only other Pelasgoi men- 
tioned by him, those of Crete, who are not named in 
the Catalogue or in the Iliad at all. It is likely, then, 
that he refers to other Pelasgoi of the Trojan army ; 
of which the two contingents immediately preceding 
this one are described without any national or tribal 
designation. 

Again, the Poet does not simply say, ' Hippothoos 
led Pelasgians,' but, ' he led tribes (yvlci) of Pelas- 
gian s,' thus pointing again to a variety of tribes com- 
prised under that name. This has been observed by 
Strabo. 2 

If in general the Achaians were paramount, and the 
Pelasgoi were subordinate members of one and the 
same community, it is not difficult to see why Homer 
should nowhere apply the Pelasgian name to any por- 
tion of the Greek army ; and again, why the same 
scruples should not bind him as to a portion of the 
Trojan force. 

He has pursued an exactly similar course with 



i II. ii. 841. 



2 xiii. 3, p. 620. 



76 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



respect to the Thracians. He mentions them in the 
Trojan Catalogue, and again in the Trojan army. 1 
They have no recognized place among the Greeks, 
and yet Thamuris, evidently a Greek, is described as 
Thracian. 2 And the word Threx seems to mean 
Highlander, in opposition to Pelasgos as Lowlander. 
Probably Thracians existed diffusively, like Pelasgians, 
among the Greeks ; but were absorbed in designations 
more prominent and splendid. 

We have yet a third example. The Kaukones appear 
in the Tenth Iliad as part of the Trojan force. 3 They 
are nowhere found in the Greek host, or in the Greek 
Catalogue. But in the Odyssey, where there was no 
reason for keeping the name in the background, as the 
same national distinctions did not require to be kept 
in view, Homer mentions the Kaukones apparently as 
a people dwelling on the west side of Greece, for the 
Pseudo-Mentor 4 is going among them from Ithaca to 
claim payment of a debt. They were probably, then, 
near neighbors. He distinguishes them as high- 
spirited peyddvpoi : which reminds us of the reverence 
he has shown for the ancient possessors of the country 
by calling the Pelasgians dioi. 

Again, Homer, in the three passages where he names 
Pelasgians, names them each time with a laudatory 
epithet ; a circumstance deserving some notice, when 
we observe to how small a proportion of his national or 
tribal names epithets are attached. 

Once he calls them ly^oljirnQoi^ addicted to the spear. 
He elsewhere uses this epithet but thrice ; once for the 
Arcadians, 6 whom, in the only other place where they are 

i II. ii. 844 ; x. 434. 2 n. n 594-6OO. 3 II. x. 429 ; xx. 329. 
Od. iii. 366. II. vii. 134. 6 n. ii. 611. 



THE PELASGOI. 



77 



named, lie describes as skilled in fight ; once for two 
royal warriors individually ; 1 and once for the Myr- 
midons. 2 This epithet then is of high rank as describ- 
ing valor. 

On the other two occasions he calls the Pelasgians 
dioi. 3 This epithet implies, sometimes, perhaps a 
narrow, but always a special and peculiar excellence. 
And it is one which Homer allows to no race except 
only the Pelasgians and Achaians. 4 There is no dif- 
ficulty in explaining the latter use of it. The former 
is also appropriate, if we suppose the Pelasgoi to be 
the ancient and primary base of the Greek nation. 

The leaders of the Pelasgoi before Troy are them- 
selves the sons of Pelasgos, who was the son of Teutamas. 

Only then in five places altogether does Homer give 
us traces of this name or its derivatives. But this 
affords no presumption averse to the hypothesis that 
the Pelasgians were the base of the Greek nation ; be- 
cause it is his uniform practice to throw into the back- 
ground whatever tends to connect the Hellenic race 
with foreign origin or blood ; and the currency of the 
Pelasgian name beyond the limits of Greece, and 
among its foes, evidently had this tendency in a marked 
degree. 

The Larisse 5 mentioned in the Trojan Catalogue 
appears once more ; 6 and on both occasions it has an 
epithet denoting fertility. The tendency of this epi- 
thet is to show that the Pelasgoi were an agricultural 
and settled people. Of this we shall find other signs. 

When we come to the historic age, we find many 

i II. ii. 692. 2 Od. iii. 188. 3 ii. x . 429 ; Od. xix. 177. 

4 II. v. 451, et alibi. 5 II. ii. 841. 6 n. xv ii. 301. 



78 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Larisses ; 1 and the mere name is commonly believed 
to indicate a seat of the Pelasgians. But in Homer we 
have only one Larisse\ A possible explanation is, that 
Larisse was properly the name of a fort or place of 
refuge, somewhat like the bell-towers of Ireland and 
other countries, to which the people of the district be- 
took themselves for refuge on an emergency, from their 
dwellings in the surrounding country. Around these 
forts, as happened in our own country about the feudal 
castles, towns would gather by a gradual process. And 
so the application of the word Larisse to the town con- 
jointly with the district, 2 of which we seem to have this 
single example in Homer, might by degrees become 
common. That which was an Argos, or settlement for 
tillage, in the original or Pelasgian stage, might, after 
wars had taught the necessity of defence, become in 
some cases a Larisse ; while in others the old name 
might continue : or the one .name might be applied to 
the part for habitation, the other to the part . for de- 
fence. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that 
the citadel of the historic Argos, which stood upon an 
eminence, was called Larisse. 3 

Such are the direct notices of the Pelasgoi in Homer. 
They are scanty in amount. But there are three other 
heads of Homeric evidence relating to them. 

1. The signs of alliance between the Pelasgoi and 
the inhabitants of particular parts of the country : 

2. The signs of a difference of race, pervading the 
population, and more or less running parallel with dif- 
ferences of rank : 

1 Cramer's Greece, vol. iii. p. 244. 

2 Comp. evpvxopog Qrjfiri, and the passage Od. xi. 260-265. 

3 Strabo, viii. 6, p. 370. 



THE PELASGOI. 79 

3. The signs of an occupation of the country prior 
to that by the Hellenic tribes : 

Independently of another head of inquiry, to be 
dealt with at a later stage, namely the relation of the 
Trojan to the Greek race : 

And, again, independently of evidence supplied by 
the later tradition. 

1. The Arcades 1 of Homer show signs of connection 
with the Pelasgoi. 

In the Catalogue the Arcades are described as 
aywiiafflzod, or heavy-armed, 2 and we are also told 
that they had no care for maritime pursuits. In both 
respects, their relation to the people of Troas is re- 
markable. Homer nowhere else uses' the epithet 
except for the Dardanians, whose position in Troas 
resembled that of the Arcadians in Peloponnesos. And 
the Trojans were so destitute of vessels, that the ship- 
wright who built for Paris is mentioned as on that 
account a notable character. 3 Nor do we hear of a 
Trojan ship in any case but his. Heavy-armed troops 
are furnished by a settled peasantry, light-armed by a 
population of less settled habits. The absence of 
maritime pursuits tends to imply a pacific character, 
in an age when enterprise by sea was so intimately 
connected with kidnapping and rapine. Arcadia was 
not a poor country. In historic times it was, next to 
Laconia, the most populous province of Peloponnesos, 4 
In the Troica it supplied sixty ships with large crews. 5 
All this is accordant with Pelasgian associations. 

1 Niebuhr, Hist, of Rome, vol. i. p. 29, sets down as Pelasgian the 
Arcadians, the Argives, probably all the original inhabitants of Pelo- 
ponnesos, the Ionians, and the people of Attica and Thessaly. 

2 II. ii. 604, 614. » ii. v . 59_ 6 4. 
* Xen. Hell. vii. 1. 23 ; L Cramer, iii. 299. 5 II. ii. 610. 



80 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Again, the Arcadians were commanded by Agapenor 3 
the son of Ankaios. But Ankaios was of iEtolia. 
Ships supplied by Agamemnon, 2 and a chief not indi- 
genous, tend to mark the Arcadians as politically sub- 
ordinate, therefore as Pelasgian. 

At the funeral games of Amarunkeus there were 
present Epeians, Pulians, and iEtolians ; 3 that is to 
say, all the neighboring tribes except the Arcadians. 
Now the Homeric indications respecting the origin of 
games, in a marked manner tend to connect them, 
as we shall find, with sources other than Pelasgic. 4 

In the Seventh Iliad, Nestor relates that in his youth 
the Pulians and Arcadians fought, near the river Iar- 
danos. The former seem to have been victorious ; 
which accords with the military inferiority ofPelasgoi 
to an Hellenic force. Clearly, when Nestor killed 
their king Ereuthalion, 5 it was by the aid of Pallas ; 
and Pallas, we shall find, is always a Hellenising deity 
against Pelasgians. The Pulians, as we have seen, are 
Achaian in a special degree. 

In marked accordance with this indirect testimony, 
the later tradition places Lucaon son of Pelasgos in 
Arcadia ; represents the people as autochthonous ; and 
makes the district compete with Argolis for having 
given them their first seat in Peloponnesos. 

We have here, too, some aid from philology. The 
Arcadians called themselves IlQoaeX^voi, which is com- 
monly rendered 4 anterior to the moon.' Now it is 
difficult to see why the moon, which continually waxes, 
wanes, and disappears, should be selected as the type 



i II. ii. 609 ; xxiii. 630-635. 2 n. ii. 612. 

3 II. xxiii. 630-635. 4 g e e infra, Chap. V. 5 II. vii. 154. 



THE PELASGOI. 



81 



of stability and longevity among natural objects. But 
if we refer the origin of the word to tcqo and HeXlol or 
JZdkhjveg, then it becomes the appropriate form in 
which the Arcadian, or Pelasgian, people assert their 
priority in the Peloponnesos to the Hellic or Sellic 
races. 

Until very late in the historic period, the Arcadians 
remained an undistinguished people. But they were 
the Swiss of Greece ; and they supplied a hardy 
soldiery to any state in want of mercenary assistance, 
without reference to attachments of race as between 
Dorian and Ionian. With the Lacedemonians they in- 
vaded Attica: with the Thebans they invaded Lace- 
daemon : 1 in the great siege of Syracuse, one con- 
tingent fought by the side of the invaders, the other 
along with the besieged. 2 

2. The Ionians (Iaones) are but once mentioned in 
Homer. They are one of five divisions appointed, in 
the Thirteenth Iliad, 3 to meet the attack of Hector, 
when that attack is destined to prevail. The others 
are the Locrians, Phthians, Epeians, and Boiotians. 
The same spirit of nationality, which prevents Homer 
from allowing any eminent Greek chieftain to be slain 
or wounded in fair conflict with the Trojans, appar- 
ently leads him in this place to select, (perhaps with 
the exception of the Epeians, 4 ) some of the less dis- 
tinguished portions of the army to resist the Trojans, 
on an occasion when the resistance is to be ineffectual. 
The Myrmidons are of necessity absent : but he might 
have placed in the post of danger those troops whom 

i Xen. Hell. vii. 1. 23. 2 Thuc. vii. 57. 3 v . 685 . 

4 They have laudatory epithets in II. xi. 732 and xiii. 686. They 
were, however, worsted by the men of Pulos. 

6 



82 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



he pointedly commends, the troops of Agamemnon, or 
the Abantes. 1 Our finding the Ionians among undis- 
tinguished contingents tends to fix upon them a like 
character. 

Further, they are called iXxeprcoveg, 2 men with long 
flowing tunics. As Homer has nowhere else used the 
epithet, he gives us no direct aid in illustrating it. 
But it clearly has more or less of disparaging effect, 
since such an habiliment is ill-suited for military pur- 
poses. And it is in direct contrast with the epithet 
d[utQo%ircovsg of the valiant Lukioi or Lycians, whose 
short and spare tunic required no cincture to con- 
fine it. 

These Ionians were, as it would seem, the ruling 
class of the Athenians, the 'AOrpaiwv ngoleleyfisvoi ; 3 or, 
it may be, their picked men. The praise awarded to 
Menestheus in the Catalogue, even if the passage be 
genuine, is only that of being good, to use a modern 
phrase, at putting his men into line. 4 The Athenian 
soldiers, indeed, are declared in II. iv. 328, to be val- 
iant, iirfitcoQzg dvrijg ; but the character of the com- 
mander is less than negative. Though of kingly 
parentage, he nowhere appears among the governing 
spirits of the army, nor is he called one of the kings, 
although his father Peteos had enjoyed the title ; 5 and 
on the only occasion when we find him amid the clash 
of arms, namely, when the brave Lycians are threaten- 
ing the part of the rampart committed to his charge, 
he shudders, and looks about him for aid. 6 The infe- 
riority extends to the other Athenian chiefs, Pheidas, 



i II. ii. 542, 577. 
4 II. ii. 554. 



2 II. xiii. 685. 
5 II. iv. 338. 



3 II. xiii. 689. 
6 II. xii. 331. 



THE PELASGOI. 



83 



Stichios, Bias, and Iasos ; 1 of whom all are undistin- 
guished, and two, Stichios and Iasos, are ' food for 
powder,' slain by Hector and ^Eneas respectively. 
Here then there seems to have been bravery without 
qualities for command ; and all this tends to exhibit 
the Athenians as in a marked degree Pelasgian at this 
epoch, stout but passive, without any of the ardor or 
the xuwg 2 of the Hellenic character. 

Something will hereafter be added to this evidence 
from an examination of the etymology of names in 
Homer. < 

The close relation between Athene and Athens, 
however, is a sign that seems to tell in the opposite 
direction. But upon examining into it, we perceive 
that it is a local and not a personal relation. Ever 
active in the protection or guidance of Achilles, Aga- 
memnon, Diomed, Odysseus, Athene says and does 
nothing whatever in the War for any Athenian. Yet 
Athens has the epithet c sacred,' 3 the unfailing mark 
in Homer of special relation to some deity ; and, as 
far as Athene has any favorite place of earthly resi- 
dence or resort, it appears to be Athens, to which, 
seemingly as matter of course, she repairs from 
Scherie, 4 in the Odyssey. There is something remark- 
able, and not easy to explain, in this combination of 
strong local connection with a total absence of personal 
care and patronage. 

It is to be borne in mind that Athene" appears to 
have been a deity of universal worship. 5 She was 
regularly adored by the Trojans, 6 whom she labored to 
ruin. 



i II. xiii. 691 ; xv. 329, 332. 2 Od. xi. 393. 3 Qd. xi. 323. 

4 Od. vii. 80. 5 Infra, Chap. VIII. 6 u, yi< 300< 



84 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



On both the occasions when Athens is placed in 
direct connection with the goddess, the name of Erech- 
theus is introduced : in the Catalogue he is stated to 
have been nursed by Athene, and he was the child 
of Aroura. 1 She (probably Athene) set him in Athens, 
in her (or his) rich or well-endowed temple (icp m 
Ttlovi v^co) . 

It is impossible wholly to shake off the apprehension 
of forgery in dealing with this passage, which falls 
short in the grammatical clearness usually so notable 
in Homer. On the other hand, the objections which 
have been taken to it seem insufficient to condemn it ; 
to condemn at any rate the part of it I have cited, 
which remarkably corresponds with Od. vii. 81 : there 
she enters the well-built house Qtvxivov dopov') of Erech- 
theus. 

Erechtheus appears in the Catalogue to be described 
as an autochthon ; and therefore probably as Pelasgian. 
The wealthy temple may perhaps mean a temple with 
a rs'^vog or glebe for a priest, which we shall find to 
be a sign, not of Hellenic, but of Pelasgian national- 
ity. On the whole, we cannot ignore the existence of 
Pelasgian signs, while we cannot find in the text of 
Homer any full explanation of the fact that Athene is 
the eponymist of Athens. 

The type of Athene, however, is far too high to allow 
us to view her as a deity merely national. She is not 
circumscribed by any limits either of blood or place. 
This does not exclude specialities of attachment ; but 
her special attachment to the Greeks is one apparently 
having reference to great qualities of mind and char- 



i II. ii. 547-549. 



THE PELASGOI. 



85 



acter. The Pelasgianism of the Trojans .does not, 
before the great quarrel, cut them off from her. She 
singularly loved Phereclos, who built the ships of 
Paris ; 1 and she aided the Trojans in erecting the 
rampart which sheltered Heracles from the pursuing 
monster. 2 

There is, however, very powerful evidence outside 
the text of Homer to show the strongly Pelasgian 
character of Attica in early times. Her subsequent 
greatness was evidently connected with a remarkable 
mixture of blood, arising from her having been, dur- 
ing long periods, a place of refuge for fugitives, and 
for the worsted party expelled from other portions of 
Greece . 

Thucydides 3 states that, from early times, Attica 
was inhabited by one and the same race, because the 
poverty of the soil offered no temptations to an invad- 
er. Hence it is, without doubt, that we find the 
Athenians of history ever claiming the character of 
autochthons. But this is in effect to call them Pelas- 
gians. 

Herodotus 4 declares the Athenians to have been 
Ionian, and the Ionians to be Pelasgian. Having 
been Pelasgians, he says, the Attican people became 
Hellenic, apparently by the reception of immigrants, 
and by a gradual amalgamation. Evidently, accord- 
ing to this historian, the change did not take place by 
an arrival of Ionians, for he declares that which Homer 
only suggests, that the Ionians were Pelasgian. 

Some conflict, however, there was, apparently, be- 
tween the urban and the rural population. The Pe- 



i II. v. 59-61. 



2 II. xx. 146. 



3 i. 2. 



* i. 56. 



86 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



lasgians complained, said Hecataeus, 1 that the Athen- 
ians drove them from the soil, which they had im- 
proved in such a degree as to excite envy. The 
Athenians alleged that their children, when they went 
forth to draw water, were insulted by the Pelasgians. 
The Dorian San, Herodotus 2 adds, was the Ionian 
Sigma. 

Thucydides 3 says the Athenians were the first among 
the Greeks to lay aside the custom of bearing arms, 
and to cultivate ease and luxury. We may naturally 
connect this fact with the undisturbed condition and 
pacific habits of the people : and perhaps it is partially 
indicated by the word elxexizcoveg, 'tunic-trailers,' 
already cited. 

The Hesiodic tradition of Hellen and his sons does 
not mention Ion. It is remarkable that Euripides 
does not represent Ion as Hellenic, but as the adopted 
son of Xouthos, the real son of Creusa, an Erechtheid ; 
in entire conformity with what, as I conceive, the 
text of Homer suggests. 

Peisistratos and his family claimed a Neleid, that is, 
a non-Pelasgian descent ; recognizing as it were the 
difference of the ruling blood. 

According to Herodotus, 4 there remained in the 
Athens of history a portion of the wall called Pelasgic, 
and the primitive Athenians were called Pelasgoi Cra- 
naoi, and were reputed to be autochthonous. 

Eleusis, in Attica, was the chief seat of the worship 
of Demeter — a deity, as we shall find, of eminently 
Pelasgian character and associations. 



1 As quoted in Herod, vi. 137, 138. 
3 i. 6. 



2 i. 139. 

4 i. 56 ; v. 64 ; viii. 44. 



THE PELASGOI. 



8T 



Strabo declares that ancient Attica was las, with an 
Ionian people, who supplied Asia Minor with the colo- 
nists of the Ionian migration. 1 

The careful researches of Dr. Hahn in Albania have 
accumulated much evidence of the Pelasgian charac- 
ter of the population. It includes remarkable coinci- 
dences with the institutions of Attica: for example, 
the fourfold division of the tribes. 2 

To us the origin of the Ionian name remains in 
great obscurity. It is probably related to the Pelasgian 
stock. It certainly appears not to be Hellenic. 

3. In the Thessaly of the Greek Catalogue, not only 
does the paucity of tribal names leave us to suppose 
that the population of the districts generally had not 
yet distinctly emerged from what may be called Pelas- 
gianism, and not only is this supposition confirmed by 
the name of Pelasgic Argos, but there are other con- 
firmatory signs. 

One of them is the worship of the River Spercheios ; 3 
which, though offered by Achilles for a special purpose, 
was also practised by Peleus, and is probably due to 
a strong local tradition of a Pelasgian character. His 
z8{iwog, or glebe, also connects him with the Pelas- 
gians. 4 

Another sign is the rfyevog or sacred glebe of De- 
meter at Purasos. 5 Possibly the name may be related 
to Ttvgog, wheat. Apart from this, the associations of 
Demeter in Homer are never Hellenic. 6 The ap- 

1 Bk. viii. p. 333. 

2 Hahn, 'Albanesische Studien/ Abschn. ii. pp. 43-46, and note 19, 
p. 130. 

3 II. xxiii. 144. 4 See infra, Chap. VII. ; also p. 106. 
5 II. ii. 696. 6 See infra, Chap. VIII. 



'88 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



pearance of a rs[j.Evog in this case is also a Pelasgian 
sign. 

The historical growth of the Graian 1 (Greek) name 
out of the Greek settlements in Italy connects it with 
communities highly Pelasgian. In Homer we find 
that name only in Boiotia, a land of rich cultivation, 
like the Italian colonies. But Aristotle 2 places the 
Graicoi in the ancient Hellas, a portion of Thessaly, 
about Dodona and the Acheloos, which, he says, was 
inhabited by them and by the Selloi. Thus the Graian 
name serves further to associate Thessaly with the 
Pelasgoi. 

4. The name Iasos has an early and important 
place in the Homeric tradition. 

(a) The phrase 4 Iason Argos,' which means West- 
ern Peloponnesos, 3 appears to indicate a dynasty, or 
dominion, of an Iasos in that country. 

(F) Demeter (in Crete, according to Hesiod) gives 
way to her passion for Iasion, 4 a son or descendant of 
Iasos, in a tilled field. 

(c) Demetor Iasides, a son, or rather a descendant, 
of Iasos, is represented by the pseud-Odysseus as 
reigning in Cyprus 5 at the period of his return to 
Ithaca, and as being in xenial relations with Egypt, 
the people of which, he says, made a present of him to 
Demetor. This clearly shows that there had been an 
Iasid dominion in Cyprus. 

(d) Amphion and Zethos, who first founded and 

1 The name Graicos, according to K. 0. Miiller, came back into 
use with the Alexandrian poets, through the old common tongue of 
Macedonia. — Miiller's Orchomenos, p. 119. 

2 Meteorol. i. 14. 3 See above, Chap. II. p. 48. 
4 Od. v. 125. 5 Od. xvii. 442. 



THE PELASGOI. 



89 



. walled in the city of Thebes, were Iasids: 1 Amphion 
at one time (^ore) reigned in Minyan Orchomenos. 

(e) Iasos, 2 son of Sphelos and grandson of Boukolos, 
was one of the Athenian commanders, and fell by the 
hand of iEneas ; this too without any commemoration : 
from both which circumstances we perceive that he 
was in no great esteem, and was most probably not of 
Hellenic, but of Pelasgian blood. 

The attachment of Demeter to Crete was plainly 
connected with the Pelasgian period. The secondary 
place given to Iasos in the war, and the etymology of 
the names of his ancestry, seem to establish his Pe- 
lasgian extraction. If Amphion and Zethos were, as 
it appears probable, displaced from Boeotia by Kadmos 
and the Phoenicians, they were probably of a Pelasgian 
family : and indeed it would be very difficult to give 
evidence of any Hellenic race or family at their epoch, 
which is between four and five generations before the 
Troica. Lastly, Cyprus, distant as it was from 
Greece, was evidently in some position of qualified 
subordination to its ruling house ; because, when the 
expedition to Troy was meditated, Kinures, 3 its ruler, 
sent a beautiful gift to Agamemnon, probably more as 
an apology for non-appearance, than as a disinterested 
token of good-will. 

All the several indications then converge upon this 
point, that the name of Iasos appears to bear no Hel- 
lenic character. It has certain points of contact at 
least with some of the races that dwelt in Egypt ; and 
likewise with Phoenicia through the city of Thebes, 
and through the indubitable presence of a Phoenician 



i Od. xi. 262, 283. 



2 II. xv. 337. 



3 II. xi. 19-23. 



90 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



influence in Cyprus. Anterior to, and apparently reach- 
ing beyond the Hellenic name, its most marked asso- 
ciations appear to be Pelasgian. 

5. There are abundant marks of a Pelasgian charac- 
ter in the population of Crete. 

We know that the ruling family in Crete was Phoe- 
nician ; but the wealth of the hundred-citied island 1 
was just what might be expected to arise from the 
early combination of Phoenician enterprise with Pelas- 
gian industry. 

There were many races in Crete, and there was a 
mixture of tongue. 2 This appears to indicate the 
presence of the Phoenician element in considerable 
force with its Semitic form of speech, as we have no 
reason to suppose, among the races actually named, 
any radical difference of language. In this passage 
the speaker is addressing Penelope, and it is in accord- 
ance with the uniform usage, of the Poems, that he 
should mention only races which had been domesticated 
in Greece. 

Those races are, 1. Achaioi, 2. Eteocretes, 
3. Kudones, 4. Dorieis, 5. Pelasgoi. Of these, 
the first and fourth may at once be classed as Hellenic. 
With respect to the Eteocretes, we may most nat- 
urally suppose them to have been part of the Pelasgian 
family, whose date of arrival was more remote, in rela- 
tion to whom all the other races had thus been 
strangers, and to whom therefore is given a name that 
is the equivalent of autochthons. The Kudones ap- 
pear to be of similar origin. They lived on a Cretan 
river Iardanos. 3 This was the name of the river in 



1 II. ii. 649. In Od. xix. 174, ninety. 

2 Od. xix. 175. 



3 Od. iii." 292. 



THE PELASGOI. 



91 



Peloponnesos, on the banks of which the Pulians 
fought the Arcadians. The battle, 1 as being one be- 
tween Achaians and Pelasgians, was probably on Arca- 
dian ground ; and the name of rapid Keladon, given 
to the stream, also shows that it was on the high 
land. 

This Pelasgian population, with its less warlike, pos- 
sibly also less energetic, habits, appears to have sunk 
at a later period into servitude. According to Ephorus, 
as quoted by Athenseus, 2 there were in Crete festivals 
of the slave population, during which freemen were 
not permitted to come within the town walls, while the 
slaves were supreme, and were competent to flog the 
free. These festivals were held in Kudonia, the city 
of the Kudones. 

Fifthly, the name of Pelasgoi speaks for itself. 

6. The Leleges have a place on the Trojan side, 
apparently more important than that of the Kaukones. 
They appear, with the Kaukones and Pelasgoi, 3 as 
part of the force which was encamped upon the plain 
during the period when the Greeks were shut up within 
their entrenchment. Priam had for one of his wives 
Laothoe, daughter of their king Altes. 4 He calls them 
lovers of battle. ^Eneas says 5 that Pallas 6 incited 
Achilles to make havoc of Trojans and Leleges.' 
Homer can hardly mean, under the name of Leleges, 
to speak of the whole body of allies, which included 
both Pelasgians and his favorite Lycians. The name 
may be one covering some of the allied contingents ; 
or it may signify the fourth and fifth divisions of the 



i II. vii. 134; xi. 735-752(7). 

3 II. x. 429. 4 II. xxi. 85. 



2'vi. p. 263. 
5 II. xx. 96. 



92 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Trojan army, which appear in the Catalogue 1 without 
any national or tribal designation, immediately before 
the Pelasgoi and the rest of the allies. 

We have abundant instances in Homer of double 
names attaching to the same population. The people 
of Elis are Eleioi and Epeioi. The Dolopians are 
included under the Phthians ; perhaps under Achaians 
and Hellenes. 2 Five races in particular are named as 
inhabiting Crete ; but all, possibly with others, are 
included in the Cretes 3 of the Second Iliad. The 
Ionian name, with that of the Kaukones, and of Le- 
leges, not to speak of the Temnikes, Aones, Huantes, 
Telebooi, of whom we do not hear in Homer, are most 
probably subdivisions of the great Pelasgian category. 
On the whole, it seems safest to adopt the conclusion 
of Bishop Thirlwall, that in all likelihood ' the name 
Pelasgians was a general one, like that of Saxons, 
Franks, or Alemanni ; but that each of the Pelasgian 
tribes had also one peculiar to itself.' 4 The evidence 
directly deducible from Homer tends to this conclusion ; 
and it is powerfully sustained, as we shall see, by more 
copious indirect testimony. 

The work of Dr. Hahn affords ample evidence of 
their occupation of Epiros, which was also recognized 
by the tradition of the ancients. 5 

The belief that the Pelasgoi were the original inhab- 
itants of Greece, appears to be held undoubtingly by 
the modern Greeks, if we may trust the recent work of 
Petrides 6 upon the ancient history of his country. 

i II. ii. 828-839. 2 n. ii. 683 ; ix. 484 ; xvi. 186. 

3 Od. xix. 175 ; II. ii. 645. 4 History of Greece, vol. i. ch. ii. 

5 Strabo, bk. v. p. 221. Leake's Travels in Northern Greece, vol. 
iv. p. 174. 6 Chap. i. pp. 2, 3 (Corfu, 1830). 



THE PELASGOI. 



98 



We are in no way obliged to suppose that tribes of 
so wide a diffusion came into Greece by a single route. 
The prevailing opinion 1 of the ancient writers was 
that their first seat was in the Peloponnesos. Homer 
gives abundant signs of them in Thessaly, but also in 
Crete and in Cyprus. It seems probable that they may 
have arrived both by the landward route of the Thra- 
cian coast, and by the stepping-stones, so to speak, 
which the southern islands afforded them. 

If there has been presented reasonable ground for 
the conclusion that the Pelasgians formed the base of 
the Greek nation, it is interesting to observe, by the 
light of history, how the most durable vitality of a peo- 
ple resides in the mass, while the energies of mere 
class, or of any branch socially separate from the trunk, 
are liable to exhaustion if they are not refreshed by 
popular contact ; as water taken from the sea grows 
foul, while the sea itself is ever fresh. The astute 
Aiolid, the high-souled and fiery Achaian, the Dorian 
with his iron will and unconquerable tenacity — each 
for a time enjoys ascendancy and disappears ; and the 
districts which successively attain to military pre-emir 
nence in the later historic ages, are Bceotia, Macedonia, 
Arcadia, Epiros, none of which had been the early 
depositories of powerful Hellenic influences. Lastly, 
Achaia emerged into a late celebrity. It is probable 
that we ought to consider this name, not so much in 
connection with the old and famous Achaian race, as 
with the party worsted in the great Dorian conquest : 
and if this be so, we shall be safe in concluding that, in 
all likelihood, the province had retained throughout a 
dominant Pelasgian character. 

1 Cramer's Greece, i. 17. 



94 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



The etymology of the Pelasgian name has been long 
and variously discussed without any conclusive issue. 
Some draw it from Peleg of the tenth chapter of Gen- 
esis, a name said to mean 4 partition,' that is, of the 
earth : this opinion is questioned by Marsh, 1 and re- 
jected by Clinton. 2 Again, it has been derived from 
pelargoi, the Greek name for storks. This, accord- 
ing to some, because the Pelasgians were wanderers, 
and the stork is migratory. But the periodical move- 
ment of the stork seems to have no great correspond- 
ence with an irregularly roving habit in a people. 
Aristophanes 8 appears undoubtedly to make the name 
of storks a vehicle for a jest on the Pelasgian origin of 
the Athenians. Another plea seems to me more plausi- 
ble. The stork is a social bird : in the East it settles 
on the roofs of houses ; it freely follows the ploughman 
along his furrow ; and its habits thus, in both points, 
supply links of association with the first appearance of 
a people of husbandmen. The stork was one of the 
sacred birds of the Egyptians. 

Some have derived the name from pelagos, a word 
used in Greek for the sea. And this, either because 
the Pelasgians came by sea, or because they came from 
beyond sea. It seems doubtful, however, whether 
' sea ' was the proper or only the second meaning of 
pelagos. We have the phrases, alog h Tzsldyeaai 
(Homer), nbvnov mlayog (Pindar), alg nelayla (iEs- 
chylus), mlayog Oaldcaijg ( Apollonius) , all of which 
seem to show that pelagos, like aequor, may mean ' a 
plain,' and may thus come to mean the expanse or 
level of the sea. Strabo tells us of a people called 

1 Horse Pelasg. c. i. sub fin. 2 Fasti Hellenici, i. 97. 

3 Aves, 1354. 



THE PELASGOI. 



95 



Pelagones in Macedonia, and in Homer we find the 
names Pelagon and Pelegon. Hesychius renders the 
word mlayog as meaning greatness or depth, or 
the breadth of the sea. If the name of Pelasgoi be 
related to the word pel ago s, it may be either because 
they were great and numerous, or because they were 
settlers upon plains. So Threx, its counterpart, akin 
to TQrtfvg, meant the inhabitant of a rough or rocky 
place, a mountaineer. 1 

Of the signs of a difference of race among the Greek 
population more or less in correspondence with a dif- 
ference of ranks, some have been exhibited in the ex- 
amination of the Achaian name, which appears properly 
to have designated an aristocracy formed from a con- 
quering or dominant race, and placed amid a popula- 
tion of distinct and less aspiring blood. 

Yet the difference must not be overstated. By com- 
mon consent we are dealing with different branches 
from the Aryan stem : and the distinction of Hellic 
and Pelasgic finds a correlative classification in the 
Italian races, where the Oscans hold the place of the 
Helloi. It is represented indeed in our country by 
the distinction among Normans, Scandinavians, Saxons 
(or the group of tribes collectively so called with no 
great propriety), and Celts ; though it may be more or 
less doubtful at which point of division we should 
draw the line among these several races. 

I shall endeavor to show that the Trojan War may 
in some sense be considered as the conflict of Hellic 
with Pelasgic elements. But it is remarkable, 1. that 

1 K. 0. Miiller (Orchomenos, p. 119), assuming Pelasgos to be 
identical with Pelargos, derives the word from tceIu, ' to be/ ' to be 
wont to be/ and so * to frequent ' or ' inhabit/ together with "Apjog. 



96 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Homer nowhere represents the Trojans as speaking a 
tongue different from that of the Greeks ; 2. that the 
Trojan soldiery are nowhere represented as generally 
inferior to the Greek force ; it is the superiority of the 
chiefs which determines the fate of battle throughout 
the Poems. 

With respect indeed to tongue, Homer tells us that 
the Trojan public called the son of Hector by the name 
of Astuanax, which is of Greek etymology ; and we 
have in Troas 1 examples of that double nomenclature 
which is commonly interpreted as referring to the 
epochs of two different nationalities, the second of 
them corresponding, for all we know, with the con- 
temporary Greek tongue, though we are made aware 
that a variety of languages were spoken among the 
allies of Troy. 2 A long list of names, common to 
Greek and Trojan personages, may be drawn out from 
the Poems. 

But while we greatly lack positive information in the 
case of Troas, we possess it in the case of Italy. Care 
indeed must be taken to exclude from any comparison 
those words which were transported bodily out of the 
Greek into the Latin tongue after literary communion 
had begun, and according to the practice which Hor- 
ace 3 has described and recommended. 

Niebuhr 4 laid down these propositions, which appear 
to be reasonable. 

1. That the words truly common to the Greek and 
Latin languages are Pelasgian : 

2. That they chiefly relate to tillage and to peaceful 
life: 

i II. ii. 813 ; xx. 74. 2 n. i v . 438 ; x. 420. 

3 De Arte Poet. 53. 
4 Hare and Thirlwall's Transl. vol. i. p. 65. 



THE PELASGOI. 



97 



3. That, accordingly, the Pelasgians were given to 
peace and to husbandry : 

4. Conversely, that the words in which the two 
tongues differ are due to another race, and indicate 
its pursuits. 

Speaking generally, those words of the Latin and 
Greek which most closely correspond, are 

1. First elements of the structure of a language, 
such as pronouns, prepositions, numerals. 

2. Words relating to the commonest objects of per- 
ception, and the primary wants of life, and forms of 
labor. 

Under the second head the following lists are pre- 
sented, by way not of exhaustion, but of example. 

I. OBJECTS OF INANIMATE NATURE. 



arjp aer vetyog nebula 

aidrjp aether vi<pog . . . nix 

akg, dakaaaa . . salum vvtj nox 

avrpov .... antrum tcevkt] . . . . pix 

aarrjp .... astrum notog polus 

avpa aura novrog .... pontus 

Aiog (Zevg) . . . dies (tiyog frigus 

dpooog .... ros ce'krjvrj .... luna 

cap ver GKOTcelog . . . scopulus 

eviavTog, rjvig . . annus oneog, Gitrfkaiov . spelunca 

Ipa terra vdop sudor 

EGirepog .... vesper t , C fluvius 

rfkiog sol verog .... ^ phivius 

noVkov .... coelum rjlrj sylva 

Mag . . . • . , lapis (j>vKog fucus 

TiaKKog ) ^vKkov .... folium 

r \f\ ("Ml S 

"kdxvg $ • • • £a/zai humus 

Ievgou . . > x £l f*uv .... hyems 

TiVKrj in ?iVKcc6ag $ ' upi] hora 

(jiTjv niensis 

7 



98 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



II. TEEES, PLANTS. 

lov viola <j)7]yog .... fagus 

fiodov rosa 

III. Or ANIMATED NATURE. 

akCdixt]^ .... vulpes tcvuv, nvvog . . . canis 

afxvog agnus teov leo 

(3oiig bos IvKog . .... lupis 

eyx&vg .... anguilla big ..... ovis 

drjp . . . . . fera ovdap uber 

innog equus nuTtog \ . . . pullus 

ixdvg piscis ravpog .... taurus 

Kanpog .... aper iig sus 

KpCog aries ojKvnrepog . . . accipiter 

IV. OBJECTS CONNECTED WITH FOOD. 

ufnrslog . . ... pampinus fiefa mel 

yaka, yakanrog > m fj.rj?.ov j .... malum 

ylayog . . \' lac > lactlS olvog vinum 

da'tg dapes olrog cibus 

tkata .... olea gvkov ficus 

elaiov . . . . oleum rpvyr) .... fruges 

KaXajxog .... calamus a-rpvyerog . . . triticum 

KOLV7] coena &6v ..... ovum 

Kpeag caro 

V. RELATED TO OUTDOOR LABOR. 

uypog ager £evyog > 

aporpov .... aratrum fyyov ) ' ' * J u S um 

apovpa ..... arvum nr/nog, orjnog . . sepes 

bpxa-Tog .... hortus 

VI. NAVIGATION. 

aynvpa .... ancora lifirjv limen 

epsT/xov .... remus vavg navis 

Kv(3epv7}Trjg . . . gubernator irovg pes 



THE PELASGOI. 



VII. DWELLINGS. 

aidahj .... favilla dvpcu fores 

avlrj aula Klrjig clavis 

66/j.oc domus tex°C lectus 

edog sedes oUog vicus 

Qakay.oq .... thalamus 

VIII. CLOTHING. 

eadrjg vestis xkdiva .... laena 

IX. THE HUMAN BODY. 

yovv genu pypbg . . . . . femur 

SekvvfiL .... digitus [ivekog .... medulla 

e/Uof ulcus odovg dens 

evrepov .... venter oareov . . . . os (ossis) 

rjTzap jecur TraMftrj .... palma 

napdirj } -ixzCp, (comp.) ) 

Kiap J- cor no{)g £ . pes, pedis 

KEfyalr] .... caput ulevr) .... ulna 

KdfjiTj coma cofiog armus 

Aa£ calx oxip os (oris) 

XanTco .... labrum 

X. THE FAMILY. 

yevog gens, genus <j>pf/T7}p > 

sKvpog .... socer <ppr]Tpr) $ ■ • • 

tiVfyp .... mater XVPV, > 

, > heres 

ixarrip .... pater XVP UGT VS > ' ' 

viog . . . . . filius 

XI. SOCIETY. 

elevdepog . . . liber , , < tectum 

ira21oKLC . . . pellex reKTov (CTsyu) . ^ te ^ Q 

fie& (pe^o) . . . rex <j>6p fur 

XII. GENEEAL IDEAS. 

aluv ..... sevum hf/dy } 

v ~ ! .->.... letum 

alyog .... algor A??™ ^ 



100 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



uveuog .... animus fievog mens 

av6rj audio (i6pog mors 

fltog vita ftop<prj forma 

(SioTog .... victus vevu numen 

yevo, yevoo . . gustus voog nosco 

Soaig dos odftr/ odor 

dupov .... donum bdvvr) odium 

eldo video bvofia nomen 

deog deus ^(o<iri Roma, robur 

diyyavu .... tango vitvog somnus 

6v(iog fumus Qarig, Qarov . . fatum 

lg vis (j>fi[M) fama 

Kviocrj .... nidor Qvyq, <j>v& . . . fuga 

XIII. ADJECTIVES OP COMMON USE. 

aynog . . . . . uncus fieyag magnus 

uXkog alius fidcov ..... minor 

ftpadvg, (3ap6vg . . tardus veog novus 

(3paxvg .... brevis okog solus 

yevvalog .... gnavus opdog ordo 

ypavg gravis ( parvus 

iravpog ... < 

yvpog curvus r ( paucus 

deijiog dexter naxvg .... pinguis 

epvdpog .... ruber, rufus mnpog .... acris 

7]6vg suavis Ttkarvg .... latus 

Kvprog .... curvus irteog plenus 

lelog lasvis rcvppog .... furvus 

leirrog > i lentus reprjv tener 

liyvg y ' ' I levis imnog .... supinus 

fiaccuv .... major #aof cavus 



For such a people as we have supposed the Pelas- 
gians to be, here is no inconsiderable equipment of 
words. But there are exceptions. 

1. In regard to religion, the stock is scanty. We 
have deus related to deog, numen to vsva, rex to qeXoo, 
in virtue probably of the sacrificial office of a primitive 
king: and we may add, as correlatives, loi^ to libo, 
and aQaopai, aqrpriQ to ara, or are, orator. But this is 



THE PELASGOI. 



101 



little : and there is a great lack of correspondence in 
the principal words, such as, on the Greek side, tagog, 
ayiog, dvco, fiafAog, vtjog, ayalpa, rspsvog, ev^Ofxai, and on the 
other, sacer, sanctus, pius, templum, preces, 
vates, mac to, mo la. In one case, or in both, there 
must have been a great displacement of the Pelasgic 
vocabulary. And as the Roman religion was far more 
Pelasgian than the Greek, it is probable that this dis- 
placement, if it occurred in one only of the two penin- 
sulas, occurred in Greece. 

2. The words relating to war are almost without 
exception irreducible to agreement. 



atxftrj . . . 

"kpriq . . . 
up[ia, ditypog , 

aamg, oanog 

fielog . . 
ftiog, rotjov 
dopv, syxog 
dtjpj}^ . . 



cuspis 


Kkialai . . . 


castra 


mucro 


Kvrjfiig . . . 


. ocrea 


acies 


Koleog . . . 


. vagina 


Mars 


icvulog . . . 


. rota 


currus 


Kvverj .... 


. galea 


rheda 


fiaxv, vGfiivT] . 


< pugna 


scutum 


\ proelium 


clypeus 


bioTog, log . . 


sagitta 


telum 


TToleuog . . . 


. bellum 


arcus 


jivfidg .... 


. temo 


hasta 


oaXmyt; . . . 


{ tuba 


lorica 


\ classicum 


tabernaculum 


tyaoyavov, tjtyog 


. ensis 



Here the most striking correspondence is that of 
Ares with Mars, both used to signify war itself, as well 
as to mean the god of war. But Ares, though he is 
not easy to trace, appears to be a deity whose origin 
would assign him exclusively neither to the Pelasgian 
nor to the Hellenic family. 2 The relationship of fielog 

' 1 Caesar, De Bell. Civil, b. iii. c. 96. 
2 See infra, Chap. VIII. 



102 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



to telum appears clear enough. Except a rather faint 
similarity of Ttolsfxog to be Hum, and of OwqijS, to lorica, 
there is no apparent connection between any other 
* words in the list. 

It is also worth observing that, while the Greeks de- 
rive the important ethical words fieltegog, better, from 
fiikoQ, and agiawg, best, from a^qg, the Latins are con- 
tent with optimus, obtained from a common root with 
opes, wealth ; possibly, however, as we, not much to 
our honor, say that one man is worth more than 
another. 

With respect to the terms belonging to navigation, 
it is remarkable how they bear upon rowing, its 
rudest form, and do not include the names for mast, 
yard, or sail. 

Again, the use of metals is slight in the earliest 
stage of society. Even with the Greeks of Homer 
only one, %alxog, or copper, was at all common ; 
and we may observe a great want of correspondence 
between the Greek and the Roman names for these 
invaluable commodities. 

1. xP va °C ' - • aurum 4. cidrjpog . . . ferrum 

2. apyvpog . . . argentum 5. naoafrepog . . stannum 

3. ^a/l/cof . . . ses 6. /x61i{3og, (jiolvfidog plumbus 

The Greek dovlog, again, is in marked contrast with the 
Latin servus. We might on the whole plausibly sup- 
pose that slavery was not a Pelasgian institution at 
the time when the Greek and Italian branches of the 
race parted company. War and maritime adventure 
were the chief feeders of that institution ; and the 
Pelasgians, as we see, were not of themselves addicted 
to either, however good the materials they afforded for 
soldiery. 



THE PELASGOI. 



103 



Nearly all those Greek words which are in close 
affinity with the Latin are found in Homer. 

It seems, then, in sum, that the Pelasgian tongue 
supplied both peninsulas with most of the words re- 
lating to the primary experience, and to the elementary 
wants and productions, of life ; but not with those of 
a more arduous range, such as war, art, policy, and 
song. And the religious vocabulary of the Greeks was 
probably supplied from Hellenic sources. 

There is also a very traceable distinction in the 
names of persons throughout the Iliad. I am far from 
contending, that we are to suppose them to be in gen- 
eral authentic. But the elements, out of which Homer 
has constructed them, will indicate a marked differ- 
ence of character and pursuits. Homer gives his 
Phaiakes names generally connected with nautical 
habits, in accordance with his picture of the people. 
It is probable that he proceeds on a similar principle 
in other cases. The evidence which names, analyzed 
according to this hypothesis, will supply, tends to show 
the strength of the Pelasgian element — 1. among the 
Trojans ; 2. in the inferior class of Greeks ; 3. par- 
ticularly in certain portions of Greece ; while 4. the 
Lycian names, though on the Trojan side, appear to 
fall into an opposite class. 

The test of a Pelasgian leaning in the names I sup- 
pose to be their connection with rural, pacific, or in- 
dustrious habits, and the like. The opposite class 
express ideas belonging to glory, policy, mental pow- 
ers, martial vigor and operations. 

We must not apply the rule too closely to slaves : 
such as Eumaios, Eurucleia, Eurumedousa, Alkippe ; 



104 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



for high-born slaves were frequently obtained by policy 
and by the chances of war. 1 

It is also to be observed that the names etymologi- 
cally related to the horse are almost exclusively on the 
Trojan side. Such are Hippasos, Hippothoos, Hippo- 
lochos (Lycian), Hippodamas, Hippodamos, Hippocoon, 
Hippomachos, Hippotion, Melanippos, Euippos, Eche- 
polos. Hippodamos, too, will be remembered as one 
of the stock or staple epithets of Hector. On the other 
side I have only noticed Hipponoos. 2 In Homer, the 
horse-feeding country is the plain country. 3 And 
Thessaly had already begun to obtain the pre-eminence 
in its breed of horses, which distinguished it in the 
historic period ; for the two best teams £ by far,' 4 in 
the Greek army, were Thessalian. This may perhaps 
be the link of association between the horse and our 
Pelasgian lowlanders. 

Again, the names connected with gates are generally 
of the Trojan party. There are Pulaios, Pulon, Pu- 
lartes, and Pulaimenes. Of the Greeks we have Euru- 
pulos. But all these appear to be the names of leaders 
or prominent personages. 

Among Attic names we find Pheidas, Stichios, Sphe- 
los, Boucolos. These names belong to prominent per- 
sonages. But an etymology relating to such ideas as 
parsimony and tillage is such as we do not find among 
the Hellenic races in a corresponding rank. 

Among Trojans slain, without much note of distinc- 
tion, we find Amphiteros, Echios, Puris, Polumelos, 
Argeas (compare Argeioi), Dresos, Opheltios, Bouco- 



l Od. xv. 413. 
3 Od. iii. 263. 



2 II. xi. 303. 
4 II. ii. 763, 770. 



THE PELASGOI. 



105 



lion, Melanthios (compare Melanthios and Melantho 
of the Odyssey, both servants). Many of the names 
accompanying these are of doubtful etymology : com- 
paratively few relate to high qualities or pursuits. 

In the Eleventh Iliad, Hector slays in a mass nine 
persons, 1 who are called fysjioysg, or leaders, as opposed 
to the nlrjdvg or common soldiery. But as none of 
these are anywhere else even mentioned, and as Homer 
never allows Greeks really distinguished to fall whole- 
sale by the Trojan sword or spear, we cannot render 
this as meaning more than that they were officers. 
Accordingly we find a mixture of names ; Aisumnos, 
Autonoos, Agelaos, are of the Hellenic class : Dolops, 
Opites, Opheltios, Oros, and perhaps Hipponoos, of the 
Pelasgic. Dolops, however, is the son of Clutos, a 
name belonging to another order. 

When we turn to the Lycians, whose affinities are 
plainly not Pelasgian, 2 we find that Odysseus slays in. 
succession Koiranos, Alastor, Chromios, Alcandros, Ha- 
lios, Noemon, Prutanis. These names are all probably 
of the Hellenic class ; for Halios means maritime, and 
we find no presumably Pelasgian names which point 
to maritime pursuits (Astualos 3 is simply local) ; 
while Chromios seems to mean bright-colored (jcpoo^oc), 
i.e. beautiful. All the others are clearly of a patrician 
cast. 

We find in the Iliad ten legitimate sons of Antenor, 
and one bastard. Eight of the ten have names palpa- 
bly of the Hellenic order : Agenor, Acamas, Archilo- 
chos, Demoleon, Echeclos, Iphidamas, Laodamas, 
Laodocos. Nor can the other two, Coon and Helicaon, 



i II. xi. 304. 



2 H. v. 677. 



3 II. vi. 29. 



106 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



be referred to the Pelasgian class. The bastard is 
Pedaios, II. v. 70 : he was brought up on the same 
footing as the rest. 

It will be remembered that Homer expressly declares 
the Myrmidons to be Hellenic and Achaian. Now we 
have named among them Patroclos, Menoitios, Menes- 
thios, Eudoros, Peisandros, Maimalos (^a/^aw) , Alki- 
medon, Laerkes, Automedon. Every one of these 
names is of what I have described as the Hellenic 
character. 

Upon the whole, and without any allegation of a 
rigid uniformity, indeed with a confessed inability to 
assign an etymology for many of the Homeric names, 
still it may be held that, where we have already on 
other grounds found reason to presume Pelasgian 
blood, there the names are frequently related to peace, 
industry, wealth, and are not of a soaring character : 
whereas in cases of high station generally, and of clear 
Hellenic blood, they refer to valor, fame, command, 
mental power, and the like. 

The chief of all the Homeric signs that Greece had 
been occupied, before the Achaian period, by a non- 
Hellenic race, is to be found in the sphere of religion. 
I will not anticipate what there will be an opportunity 
of unfolding in detail hereafter. 1 It may suffice for 
the present to observe, that while the genius of the 
Olympian system of Homer is intensely human or 
anthropomorphic, we can trace, especially outside of 
that system, but partially as adopted into it, the re- 
mains of a religion of a different order, based, princi- 
pally, at the least, upon the worship of Nature-Powers, 



1 Infra, Chap. VII. 



THE PELASGOI. 



107 



that is to say, of the powers discerned in material and 
sensible nature. 

I now turn to glance at some of the extra-Homeric 
evidence of the wide extension of the Pelasgoi at an 
early period. 1 

Besides associating Dodona both with Hellic and 
Pelasgic races, Hesiod may be interpreted as personi- 
fying Pelasgos : a testimony legendary in itself, but 
betokening the importance of the race. 2 

Asios, a very ancient poet, as quoted by Pausanias, 
represents Pelasgos to have been the child of Earth, 
born upon the mountains that he might be the father 
of men. 3 iEschylus, in the Supplices, 4 makes him the 
son of the earth-born Palaichthon ; from him the Pe- 
lasgians take their name : his dominion reaches from 
the Strumon northwards to the Peloponnesos. In the 
reign of this Pelasgos, Danaos comes to Greece. Of 
Pelasgos, Argos in the historic period professed to 
show the tomb. Arcadia held the tradition that he 
taught the use of dwellings and clothes, and to eat 
chestnuts instead of roots, grass, and leaves. 5 Thes- 
saly had its separate tradition of him. 

According to Herodotus, Greece was anciently called 
Pelasgia: the Peloponnesian women under Danaos were 
Pelasgiotides : the Arcadians and people of Aigialeia 
(afterwards Achaia) were Pelasgian : the case of At- 
tica has already been mentioned : recollections of the 
Pelasgian worship were preserved in his day at Do- 
dona : the Pelasgian race subsisted in Samothrace and 
Lemnos, and in Plakid and Skulake, settlements on 

1 See Bishop Marsh, Horae Pelasgicae, Cambridge, 1815. 

2 Hes. Fragm. x. 2. 3 Paus. viii. 1.2. 4 v. 247. 
5 Paus. viii. 2. 2. • 



108 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



the Hellespont. 1 He writes 2 that they use a foreign 
tongue ; and at this we need not wonder, when they 
and the Pelasgians of the Greek peninsula had moved 
for so many generations on separate and diverging lines. 

Thucydides places the spot, or building, called Pe- 
lasgicon, under the Acropolis at Athens ; and states 
that the Pelasgian race was the race principally diffused 
over Greece in early times. He also calls the Pe- 
lasgians of his own day barbaroi; the name then ap- 
plied by Greeks to everything not Greek. He adds 
that they were of the same family, the Tursenoi, 
who anciently occupied Athens. 3 

Theocritus, early in the third century before Christ, 
describes the Pelasgians as the principal race in Greece 
before the Tro'ica; and Apollonius, two generations 
later, calls Thessaly their country. The Scholiast on 
this passage quotes Sophocles in the Inachos as declar- 
ing that Pelasgoi and Argeioi were the same: 
which, for those within the limits of Greece, is very 
nearly the conclusion suggested by the text of Homer 
as a whole. 4 

Strabo states that the Pelasgoi were the earliest 
lords of Greece ; that the oracle of Dodona was a Pe- 
lasgian foundation ; that Thessaly was called Pelasgic 
Argos ; that, according to Ephorus, Pelasgia was a 
name of the Peloponnesos ; and he gives us the frag- 
ment of Euripides, which reports that Danaos changed 
the name of its inhabitants from Pelasgiotai to 
Danaoi. 5 

1 Herod, i. 146 ; ii. 52, 56, 171 ; vii. 94. 

2 Herod, i. 57. 3 Thucyd. i. 3 ; v. 109. 

4 Theocr. Idyll, xv. 136-140 ; Apoll. Argonaut, i. 580 ; and Schol. 
Paris. 3 Strabo. vii. p. 327 ; y. p. 221. 



THE PELASGOI. 



109 



Dionysius looks upon Peloponnesos as the first seat 
of the race, and affirms that it was Hellenic : meaning, 
probably, that it entered into the composition of the 
Hellenic body. 1 

Niebuhr 2 shows the wide range of Pelasgian occu- 
pancy in Italy : Cramer, in Greece and Asia Minor. 3 

1 Dion. Halic. i. 17. 2 Hist. chap. iii. 

3 Geogr. of Ancient Greece, yol. i. p. 15. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Hellas. 

The name which the Greeks have given their country 
for a period approaching three thousand years, and 
which foreign countries have incorrectly rendered by 
the term Greece, is Hellas. It has a secondary place 
in Homer ; and yet there are indications of its coming 
greatness. With Hellas as a territorial name, we meet 
not unfrequently in Homer ; but we likewise have the 
derivatives of that word, — 

1. Hellenes, H. ii. 684. 

2. Panhellenes, II. ii. 530. 

3. Kephallenes, II. ii. 631 et alibi. 

And we have also the primitive tribal name from 
which it is itself derived, Helloi, or Selloi, II. xvi. 234. 

We first make acquaintance with the Hellas of 
Homer in the Catalogue. He takes unusual pains to 
fix in his picture, as it were with fast colors, the 
contingent of Achilles. In four lines he represents 
them, — 

1. As occupying a part of Pelasgic Argos or Thessaly. 

2. As occupying Alos, AlopS, Trechin, with Phthi^ 



HELLAS. 



Ill 



and Hellas. The three places named are probably the" 
chief or only towns. 1 

3. As bearing the designations (1) of Myrmidons, 
(2) of Hellenes, (3) of Achaioi. 

In Homer, great part of Greece is wholly without 
territorial names ; and, when such names appear, we 
must not at once assume that they are employed with 
the same precision as in later times, when they came 
to signify districts of fixed and known delimitation. 

Hellas is named ten times in the Poems ; four times 
together with Argos, in the set phrase ^ad' 'Elldda xal 
(A86ov ' r Agyog^ ' throughout Hellas and mid-Argos :' 
four times obviously in the same sense as in II. ii. 683; 
and three of the four times in immediate connection 
with Phthie, and with reference to territory under the 
dominion of Peleus. 3 

But, in II. ix. 447, Phoenix says that he left Hellas 
to enter the dominions of Peleus, and in II. ix. 478, 
that he left Hellas, and entered Phthie. Yet the 
Catalogue, and* three other passages, show us, that a 
part at least of the dominions of Peleus was called 
Hellas ; and the Myrmidons were also called Hellenes, 
and are indeed the only people to whom that designa- 
tion is expressly given. 

Now, when Phoenix thus took refuge, he was flying 
from his father Amuntor, who dwelt in Eleon ; 4 and 
this Eleon, as we find from the Catalogue, was in the 
land of the Boiotoi. 5 Consequently the name Hellas, 
besides designating at least a part of the kingdom of 

1 See the Catalogue, II. ii. 603 seqq., 615 seqq. 

2 Od. i. 344 ; iv. 726, 816 ; xv. 80. 

3 II. ii. 683 ; ix. 395 ; xvi. 595 ; Od. xi. 496. 

4 II. x. 266. . 5 ii. ii. 500, 



112 



JUVENTUS MTJNDI. 



Peleus, embraced the country as far as to include 
Boeotia. 

Accordingly, it must have included the country of 
the Locroi, afterwards called Locris. So that, when 
Homer says the Oilean Ajax excelled, in the art of 
casting the spear, 6 the Panhellenes/ that is, all the 
Hellenes, 4 and the Achaians,' it is pretty plain that 
the name Hellenes in his view embraced the Locroi. 

We find, then, that the two passages, where Hellas 
is named by Phoenix in contradistinction to Phthie', 
are in general harmony (according to the results of 
our previous inquiry 1 ) with those where it is mentioned 
with Argos ; and that, in both, it is, without any rigid 
definition of boundary, a general name for the parts of 
Greece north of the Peloponnesos. 

And the four passages, in which the name Hellas is 
applied to territory under the sway of Peleus, do not 
compel us to give a second sense to the term ; for they 
do not imply that Peleus ruled all Hellas, but only that 
his dominions extended beyond the territory specially 
called Phthie, and included part of what had Hellas for 
its ruling appellation. 

Phthie itself is remarkable as the only territorial 
name, denoting a district of country without reference 
to a town, which we find in the Greece of Homer north 
of the Isthmus of Corinth. We may regard it as carved 
out of Hellas, and so distinguished from it when men- 
tioned alone ; yet included in it when Northern Greece 
is named as a whole. The phrase 4 Pelasgic Argos ' is 
hardly an exception, since that appears rather to be a 
description given by the Poet of the great Pelasgian 



1 Supra, Chap. II. 



HELLAS. 



113 



Lowlands, than a recognized and current title. So ' the 
plain of York ' is a descriptive phrase, not an estab- 
lished territorial name. 

It is plain that Phthie was the principal part of the 
dominions of Peleus, since it is used for the whole of 
them, 1 like England for the United Kingdom. It was 
a rich and fertile country. 

Yet its inhabitants are never called Phthioi. This 
name is given to two other Thessalian contingents, the 
second under Podarkes,and the fourth under Medon. 2 
And here we have a remarkable indication of the dis- 
tinction between the Hellenic and the Pelasgian races. 
We cannot doubt that the kingdom of Peleus had been 
inhabited by Phthioi, since they had given it the name 
Phthie. We have no reason to suppose these Phthians 
were displaced by the Myrmidons, since we find 
Phthians and Myrmidons side by side in the same army. 
But the more distinguished title effaces the more ob- 
scure ; and while the Phthian name continues to attach 
to the population of other less Hellenized parts of Thes- 
saly, in Phthie itself the people have in lieu of it the 
three designations of Myrmidon, Hellene, and Achaian ; 
Achaian, as a great and leading branch of the illus- 
trious Achaian family ; Hellene, as inhabiting a country 
included under the overriding name of Hellas ; and 
Myrmidon, probably as a subsept of the Achaians. 

It is plain, that Homer has made use of special means 
to mark the Hellenic and Achaian character of the 
kingdom of Peleus, and to exclude it in a marked man- 
ner from the category of Pelasgian influences. This 

1 II. i. 155, 169 ; ix. 363 ; xix. 299. 

2 II. xiii. 686, 693 ; cf. II. ii. 704, 727. 

8 



114 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



observation, however, opens up another subject, to 
which we may revert. 

The word Panhellenes, though only once used, in 
the description of the Oilean Ajax, is of great impor- 
tance. 6 In spear-casting he excelled the Panhellenes 
and Achaians.' 1 These two names cannot refer to the 
inhabitants of different territories. Even if they did, 
the former would include the inhabitants of all Hellas, 
that is, of all Northern and Middle Greece. But we 
know (1) that there were Achaians there ; (2) that 
these Achaians were also, in the case of the Myrmidons, 
called Hellenes. Homer may seem, then, to designate, 
though not as by absolute and well-understood syn- 
onyms, but rather with a certain vagueness, substan- 
tially the same persons, namely all the Greeks ; but to 
give them both their territorial name, and their blood- 
name. 

Though Thucydides 2 is right in saying Homer does 
not call the Greeks Hellenes, yet it thus appears not 
improbable that, once at least, he calls them Panhel- 
lenes. Yet the verse ought hardly to attract suspicion 
on account of the word, since independently of it we 
have sufficient proof that the territorial name of Hellas 
might be applied without impropriety to describe the 
range at least of Northern and Middle Greece. Nor do 
I broadly deny that this may be the meaning of the 
word Panhellenes. If such be the true construction, 
then the use of Panhellenes and Achaians to signify all 
Greeks, may be compared with the use of 6 Hellas and 
the breadth of Argos ' in the Odyssey to describe all 
Greece. It is also just possible that, as the Achaian 



i II. ii. 530. 



2 i. 3. 



HELLAS. 



115 



name has a leaning to the dominant class or aristoc- 
racy, the Hellenic name may in this passage have a 
similar leaning, and may, like the other, be used to de- 
note the community, as the part supposed more excel- 
lent often is used to denote the whole. 

There is another designation in Homer which seems 
probably, if not certainly, to be a derivative from the 
same stock — the name Kephallenes, a name still en- 
graved on the island of Cefalonia. This word is used 
in the Iliad to describe the subjects of Odysseus. It, 
however, appears but twice. It might be expected to 
recur frequently in the Odyssey. But it is employed 
only five times, and never for the inhabitants of Ithaka, 
taken alone, who are always called either Ithakesioi, 
or Achaioi. InOd. xx. 210 it refers especially to those 
who inhabited the continental pasture lands of Odys- 
seus. In Od. xxiv. 354, 377, 428, it seems to be capable 
of no meaning except the subjects of Laertes and those 
of Odysseus generally, as in the Iliad. Generally, I 
mean, as opposed to any narrower territorial limita- 
tion ; for I do not exclude the belief that the name of 
Kephallenes may imply the better blood of the commu- 
nity. It may moreover be conjectured that this was 
a word, like Hellenes, creeping into use, but not as yet 
fully established. 

It appears to be formed from the word Hellenes, 
with the prefix y.ecp-, meaning 4 head,' which appears in 
xeydlrj, in the Sanscrit kapala, the Latin caput, and the 
German kopf, 1 not to mention other words. 

Let us now ascend to the word from which Hellas 
itself is derived ; since it obviously means, according to 

1 Donaldson, New Cratylus. p. 291. 



116 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



a regular Greek formation, the country which had been 
occupied by, and which had come to be named from, 
the Helloi. These Helloi appear to be the Seiloi of 
II. xvi. 234. They seem also to be a people of the rud- 
est habits, dwellers in the mountains ; having prophets 
or interpreters, it is said, not priests, of Zeus, and be- 
ing especially devoted to him in that capacity. We have 
other vestiges of this race in Homer ; in the name of a 
river Selleeis, which we find in or near Troas, 1 as well 
as (probably) at more than one point in Greece ; and 
especially in the name Hellespontos, which in Homer 
means not the narrow strait merely, but the whole sea 
between Troas and Thessaly at the least, or the north- 
ern iEgean. 2 

Independently of the grammatical connection be- 
tween Helloi, Hellas, and Hellene, there can be little 
doubt that in his solemn invocation, Achilles, himself 
described as a Hellene, means to invoke Zeus by the tie 
of race. This, then, is signified in the recital concerning 
the Seiloi, or Helloi, the sigma and the aspirate here 
representing one another as in many other cases ; for 
example, hex, hepta, hud or, hus, and sex, septem, 
sudor, sus. The one form reappears in Selleeis, and 
in the Proselenoi 3 of Arcadia ; the other in Helles- 
pont, and in the Hellopia of Hesiod. 

The Scholiast on the Birds of Aristophanes 4 informs 
us that braggarts were called Seiloi ; and that the word 
oelll&iv meant to vapor or brag. He derives this 
sense of the word from Sellos, the father of one J&s- 
chines, satirized by the dramatist. Now it seems very 
little probable that the name of the obscure father of an 

i II. ii. 839. 2 ii. i x . 360. 

3 See supra, Chap. II. p. 80. 4 v. 824. 



HELLAS. 



117 



obscure man should thus have given by metaphor a 
word to the Greek tongue ; and again, that the expla- 
nation should have been handed down from the time of 
Aristophanes to that of the Scholiast. Such words as 
4 hectoring ' and 6 rhodomontading ' presuppose a great 
celebrity in the personage on whose name they are 
based, as without this they would not be intelligible. 
But if we refer this phrase to the ancient Selloi, the 
explanation is easy. In Greece, and especially in Attica, 
to be autochthonous or indigenous, and consequently 
to be of a very ancient race, was notoriously matter 
not only of credit but of vainglory, and thus to play the 
Sell os would be a natural and effective way of describ- 
ing the manners of a vainglorious person. 

The great Greek chieftains of the war are supplied as 
follows: Achilles, from a district of which the whole 
military class is expressly described as Hellene and 
Achaian ; Idomeneus, from Phoenician ancestry ; Odys- 
seus also, from a region in which the upper class is 
Achaian ; Agamemnon, Menelaos, Diomed, Nestor, 
from districts in which Pelasgianism is wholly sub- 
merged. The greater Ajax is the near kinsman of 
Achilles, and we must therefore suppose the Telamo- 
nian race to be strongly marked with Hellenism. 

It may reasonably be asked, how it happens that if 
Southern Greece, meaning the Peloponnesos with the 
adjoining islands, thus abounds* in Hellenic elements, 
we should be entirely without traces of the name of 
Hellas in that portion of the country. 

We find indeed its kindred there; the name Sel- 
leeis for a river, and Kephallenes for a people. But 
these are not very prominent. The proper answer 
seems to be that, as the name Hellas took a natural 



118 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



precedence over names of Pelasgian associations, so the 
Achaians were probably the flower and the ruling order 
of Hellenes. Consequently, their name, where they 
were largely spread, might tend to suppress that of 
Hellas ; or to prevent its formation, by filling already 
the place it would occupy with the territorial name 
Achaiis. This Achaian name is here found prevailing 
in the dominions of Agamemnon, of Diomed, of Nestor, 
of Odysseus : the same must be presumed of those of 
Menelaos. And at least much the larger part of the 
Peloponnesos seems to be included in the Achaic Argos, 
besides that the word Achaiis unquestionably includes 
the whole country from north to south. 

There may however be an inference drawn from the 
local concatenation of names. Beginning at or near 
Troas, and moving towards the west, we have Selleeis, 
Hellespont, Helloi, Hellenes, and (from Hesiod) Hel- 
lopia. Probably we have here an indication that the 
route of the Hellic tribes into Greece was by the Hel- 
lespont and the northern extremity of the country. 
They were not, like the Pelasgians, an essentially low- 
land people, as we perceive from the brief description 
in the Invocation of Achilles. The name Trechin, as 
one of the settlements in the kingdom of Peleus, allied 
as it is with Threx, or Thracian, affords a similar 
indication. Again, Thamuris, the Bard who attended 
the solemn public competitions of song, and challenged 
the Muses, and whom I suppose, like those compe- 
titions themselves, to be Hellenic, was a Thracian. 
There is therefore less difficulty in assigning this 
route unequivocally to the Hellic than to the Pelasgian 
race. 



CHAPTER V. 



The Phcenicians and the Egyptians. 
Direct Notices. 

i. Minos, who is stated by Thucydides 1 to have 
been the first known founder of a maritime empire, 
appears in Homer as the greatest and most important 
of his archaic personages. The achievements of Hera- 
cles are personal, indeed corporal ; but the name of 
Minos, whether mythical or not, is a symbol of political 
power, of the administration of justice, in a word, of 
civilization. He is the only person, indeed, lying so 
far back in time as three generations before the War, 
about whom Homer has supplied us with any details 
of real and historic interest. 

Minos had Zeus for his father, and the daughter of a 
distinguished Phoenician 2 (such appears to be the most 
probable interpretation, but in substance there is little 
doubt about the meaning) for his mother. At nine 
years old he received revelations from Zeus, 3 and 



i i. 4. 



2 II. xiv. 321. 



3 II. xiii. 450-453; Od. xix. 178. 



120 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



reigned over all Crete, at that early age, in the great 
city of Knossos, 1 named first among the Cretan cities 
in the Catalogue. He was the father of Deucalion, 
and the grandfather of Idomeneus, 2 who, at the period 
of the War, was passing from middle life into old age, 3 
and had begun to feel its effects in failure of the 
organs of sense. After death, the Cretan sovereign 
exercised the office of a ruler in the realm of Aidoneus, 
and administered justice among the dead, 4 as a king 
does among his subjects upon earth. His brother Rha- 
damanthus, 5 hardly less distinguished, has the custody 
of the Elysian Plain. Him the Phaiakes conveyed (by 
water from Scherie 6 ) to Euboea, on his way to Pano- 
peus of the Phoke s, for the purpose, apparently, of his 
passing judgment upon Tituos, son of Gaia, who had 
offered violence to Leto, as she was on her way (pro- 
bably from Delos) to Putho or Delphi. 7 The presump- 
tion arising upon these passages is, that Rhadamanthus 
was acting for his brother Minos, and that the authority 
of that sovereign prevailed not only in Scherie but in 
Phokis ; in other words, that he bore sway over a con- 
siderable dominion, both maritime and continental, in 
Greece. 

This connection with Scherie confirms his Phoeni- 
cian character : and the signs of an authority extending 
to the mainland of Greece, and to the islands on its 
western coast, appear to be plain. It may be as a relic 
of this dominion, that we find in Ithaca a harbor of 
Phorcus, 8 who is a maritime god of the Phoenicians. 

i II. ii. 646. 2 Od. xix. 180. 3 II. xxiii. 469, 476. 

4 Od. xi. 569. 5 Od. iv. 564. 

6 See the Outer Geography, infra, Chap. XIV. 

7 Od.Vii. 321-324; xi. 576-581. 8 Od. xiii. 96. 



THE PHOENICIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS. 



121 



General tradition reports that Minos laid a tribute 
upon Attica. 1 Of this we have no direct evidence 
from Homer ; but the fact that Theseus went to Crete 
to seek Ariadne the daughter of Minos to wife, 2 indi- 
cates a political relation between them, and in this 
way partially sustains the tradition. 

Minos is in the last named passage called oloo- 
phron. 3 This is a word confined by Homer to the 
circle of Phoenician personages. The epithet seems to 
imply in some form a formidable if not injurious craft. 
It may apply to the character of the Phoenicians as 
astute and tricky merchants, who acted at times as 
kidnappers and pirates : but as it is applied to great 
personages, 4 Atlas, Aietes, and Minos, it may probably 
refer to what is politically formidable ; and, if so, it 
may well be a trace of a former supremacy in Greece, 
standing in connection with the Phoenician name. 

It may even be doubted whether Homer does not 
mean to describe the Phoenician tongue as still spoken 
in Crete ; for he says 5 that in that island there is a 
mixture of languages. This with him is a significant 
and rare expression. It is difficult to suppose that he 
would have used it merely because the island contained 
Pelasgian as well as Hellenic races. For he speaks 
of the mixed tongue of the Trojan army, not in con- 
nection with the people of Troas, who probably spoke 
the same or nearly the same language with the Greeks, 
but with the allies, 6 of whom he distinctly calls the 

1 See the Dialogue Minos, ascribed to Plato, 16, 17. 

2 Od. xi. 322. 

3 1 o o s is applied to an adverse divinity. See II. iii. 865 ; 
xxii. 15. 4 Od. i. 52 ; x. 137. 

5 Od. xix. 175. 6 n. ii. 803, 804. 



122 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Carians barbaroph onoi. 1 He applies the phrase 
allo-throoi 2 to the people of Temes£ in Cyprus, who 
were probably Phoenician. If the Phoenicians gave 
Crete its name, then the Eteocretes of this passage of 
the Odyssey may be a Phoenician race, amidst the 
other four, which are apparently Hellenic and Pelas- 
gian. This conjecture is in some degree supported by 
the fact that the Poet calls them meg ale tores, or 
haughty ; an epithet suited to a race in possession of 
political ascendancy, much in accordance with the 
oloophrdn already cited, and yet more closely with 
another of his Phoenician epithets, agauos. 3 

It is possible that the Deucalion whom the later 
tradition connects with Thessaly, may have been the 
son of Minos ; and that his appearance there ought to 
be taken as another indication that the power of Minos 
reached to that region. Thucydides 4 states that this 
personage appointed his children to be hegemones or 
rulers ; which implies a dominion distributed in pro- 
vinces, and also Asiatic in some of its features. 

If this be so, then, on finding Minos installed as a 
ruler in the Underworld, we reasonably conclude that 
he is not so placed by the arbitrary choice of the Poet, 
but that he governs below the same persons, of the 
same countries, which he had governed upon earth. 
In short, that his office there.; is a testimony to the 
existence of a bygone Phoenician dominion, exercised 
in Greece from Crete as a centre. The great wealth 
of Crete is eminently in harmony with this hypothesis. 

Bishop Thirlwall 5 has explained the position of 
Minos, as it is defined by general tradition. Again, 

i II. ii. 867. 2 Od. i. 183. 3 Od. xiii. 272. 

4 i. 4. 5 Hist, of Greece, i. 5. 



THE PHOENICIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS. 123 

the existence of an empire connected with his name 
best explains the partial introduction of Cretan insti- 
tutions into Laconia. I have elsewhere 1 ventured on 
the conjecture that the mnoia, or public slavery, of 
Crete was an institution of Minos, and is named after 
him. 

Herodotus repeats, that Minos expelled his brother 
Sarpedon from Crete ; and that Sarpedon colonized 
Lycia, which, even in the time of the historian, was 
governed by laws partly Cretan. If the royal house 
of Lycia was thus connected with that of Crete, and 
with the man who made the first recorded effort to 
bind Greece together in civil order, it gives a satis- 
factory explanation to the remarkable partiality which 
the poet always shows in the Iliad for the Lukioi or 
Lycians, far above all the other portions of the Trojan 
force. 

Again, Homer places Daidalos in Crete ; and says 
that he wrought there for Ariadne, in metal, a dance, 
which formed the model of that wrought by Hephaistos 
on the shield of Achilles. 2 He could not more dis- 
tinctly have connected the Crete of Minos with the 
Phoenicians than by placing there the great traditional 
producer of works in metallic art, from whose name 
was taken the verb daiddllEiv, to embellish. 

Next to Minos we m% consider the case of Kadmos 
in connection with the Phoenician name and race. 
Homer gives us conclusive evidence of the migration 
of such a persan into Greece, by calling the inhabitants 
of Thebes, one generation before the Tro'ica, by the 

1 Studies on Homer, vol. i. p. 179. 

2 II. xviii. 592. 



124 JUVENTUS MUNDI. 

names of Kadmeioi and Kadmeiones. His proper 
name is only mentioned in the Odyssey as the father 
of Leukothee, 1 once a mortal, now deified in the Sea- 
region, who appears to Odysseus after the wreck of his 
raft on the way from Ogugie, and provides him with a 
girdle for his preservation from the angry flood. 
There could hardly be a more distinct intimation of 
the Phoenician extraction of Ino than her deification, 
not in Greece, but in the Sea-sphere, and her appear- 
ing to Odysseus before he had regained the threshold 
of the Greek world. 

We learn from general tradition that the Thebes of 
Kadmos had seven gates, which were in correspond- 
ence with the sevenfold planetary worship of the East. 
And Homer 2 calls the Thebes of the Kadmeioi seven- 
gated. But Kadmos was not the first founder of the 
city : its first founders were Amphion and Zethos : 3 
and Homer, when he mentions the foundation by them, 
does not call it seven-gated, but champaign, from the 
character of the country, conformably to the description 
given by Thucydides. 

In the Underworld of the Odyssey we find a great 
proportion of persons having Phoenician associations. 
Again, the name Phoinix had, at the epoch of the 
War, been variously naturalized in Greece. Besides 
being a Greek proper name, it also meant a Phoeni- 
cian, a palm-tree, and a purple dye. 4 

The most important works of art named in the 
poems are obtained from the Phoenicians. Not only 
was this the case with works in metal, but it was from 
Sidonia that Paris brought the beautifully wrought 

i Od. v. 333 2 ii. i Y . 406. 3 Od. xi. 263. 

4 Od. xiv. 288 ; vi. 163 ; II. iv. 141. 



THE PHOENICIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS. 



125 



tissues which were so prized by the royal family of 
Troy. 1 And all navigation, except that of the coasts 
and the ^Egean, appears to be, at the Homeric period, 
practically in the hands of the same people. The 
Taphians, who carry iron to Temese 2 in Cyprus, and 
mean to bring back copper, appear clearly to be a 
Phoenician colony. Odysseus, feigning that he had 
escaped from Crete to Ithaca, 3 speaks, as if it had been a 
matter of course, about the ship's company who brought 
him, as Phoenicians. In his second fiction, 4 and here 
again as if it were a matter of course, it is a Phoeni- 
cian rogue who inveigled him in Egypt, carried him to 
Phoenicia, and then intended to take him to Libya and 
sell him for a slave. When Odysseus represents him- 
'self in another of his fictions as a practised navigator, 
he is a Cretan, but he is one of the highest station, and 
represents himself as having been the colleague of Ido- 
meneus in the Trojan command ; therefore, probably, 
as like him of a Phoenician family. 5 Eumaios, telling 
of his own home in the distant Surie, 6 describes how 
the Phoenicians came thither for trade or kidnapping, 
and how a Phoenician woman was a domestic in his 
father's house. 7 Alone among the races of the epoch, 
the Phoinikes, with their imagined counterparts, the 
Phaiakes, are called nausiclutoi, 8 ■ ship-famous.' 

The immense fame acquired, and the mythical 
character assumed, by the single great Achaian 
voyage of the traditionary fore- time, that of the ship 
Argo to the Euxine, combine with all the other 
negative evidence of the Poems to prove to us how 

i II. vi. 289. 2 Od. i. 184. 3 Od. xiii. 272. 

4 Od. xiy. 290-300. 5 Od. xiv. 230, 237. 6 Od. xv. 403. 
7 lb. 417. 8 Od. xv. 415; vii. 39; xvi. 227. 



126 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



completely the Greeks of the Homeric age were de- 
pendent on the Phoenicians for their ordinary inter- 
course with the outer world ; and the outer world 
here means everything beyond the Greek Peninsula, 
with the islands coasting it to the south of the Corin- 
thian Gulf, and with the islands and coasts of the 
iEgean. 

Besides the name Phoinix, we have in the poems 
the names of Marathon, Turo (Tyre), and Danae, 1 
which are all apparently represented in Phoenician 
names still traceable on that coast. 

The direct notices of Egypt in the Poems are much 
narrower than those of Phoenicia; and the name 
Aiguptios, 2 borne by an Ithacan noble, is perhaps 
the sole positive trace which we find of an Egyptian 
influence within the limits of Greece. 

Egyptian Thebes was known as a city of vast 
wealth, with twenty thousand persons possessed of 
chariots, and with an hundred gates. 3 

In the Odyssey we learn that Menelaos, driven 
by the winds, visited the Aiguptioi. 4 In the palace 
of Menelaos, 5 one of the attendants of Helen carried 
her silver basket, 6 given her by Alkandre, wife of 
Polubos, who dwelt in Egyptian Thebes. Helen had 
likewise the drug of marvellous effects, which may 
have been opium. This drug had been presented to her 
by the Egyptian Poludamna, wife of Thon. 7 It grew 
in Egypt, which abounds in drugs, and where all the 
inhabitants are unrivalled physicians, being of the 
race of Paieon. 8 



1 See Kenan's Phenicie. 

3 II. ix. 381-384 ; Od. iv. 127. 

5 Od. iv. 87. 

1 Od. iv. 227-232. 



2 Od. ii. 15. 
4 Od. iii. 300. 
6 Od. iv. 125. 

8 See Paieon, infra, Chap. VIII. 



THE PHOENICIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS. 127 

In this region Menelaos was detained by the gods 
for neglecting to offer the proper sacrifices, at Pharos, 1 
a day's sail from the mainland. There he had his 
interview with Eidothee, and his conflict with Proteus, 
the servant of Poseidon. 2 By Proteus, after his 
victory, he was directed to return to the mouth of 
the river Nile, which, as well as the country, was 
called Aiguptos. At that point he was to make his 
offerings, which he did. And there he erected a 
funeral mound in honor of Agamemnon, 4 for his 
eternal fame.' 3 This passage seems to show either 
that Agamemnon was already known in Egypt, or 
that the memorial would make him famous because 
it was in so famous a country. In either sense, partic- 
ularly in the latter, the recital savors of some tradition 
which exhibited Egypt as a great centre of power. 

In the fiction where Odysseus pretends to be a 
Cretan, and the bastard son of Kastor, he relates 
that he sailed to Egypt with a crew, who in spite of 
him began to lay waste the exceeding fine fields (peri- 
calleas agrous) of the Egyptians, 4 and to assail the 
inhabitants. Next morning the Egyptians gather in 
great numbers and drive off the marauders, killing 
many, and reducing the rest to slavery. As being 
their chief, he besought the king's mercy. He was 
treated with exceeding kindness both by the king, 
and, after the first excitement, by the people. In 
this passage 5 Homer calls Egypt ' the well-watered.' 

In another fiction Odysseus relates that he went 
with free-wandering pirates, probably meaning Phoeni- 

i Od. iv. 351 seqq. 2 Od. iv. 386. » lb. 584. 

4 Od. xiv. 249-287. 5 lb. 257. 



128 



JUVEXTUS MO PI. 



eians. to Egypt, and the very same circumstances are 
repeated : but this time, instead of his applying to the 
king, and obtaining mercy, he reports that they made 
him over to Demetor. the lord of Cyprus. 1 

TVe have no such thing as a voluntary voyage to 
E^rypt by a pure Greek, or as any voyage to Greece by 
an Egyptian. The sea which separates them is so wide, 
that the very birds can traverse it but once a year. 2 

And yet. though Homer knew little of Egypt, he 
had informants who told him of what lay beyond it. 
Most strange it is to tind that his account of the Pug- 
niaioi or Pigmies. 3 so long regarded as pure fable, has 
been found, according to recent travellers, to be found- 
ed in fact. 

Such are the direct Homeric notices of these two 
countries. But eight Books of the Odyssey ( v-xii) 
describe the adventures of the hero on his way home. 
Erom the time when he leaves the Kikones. whose 
country is his very first halting-place, and passes Cape 
Malea. the scene of these adventures is in an outer 
world, evidently foreign to Greek experience. They 
are made up from materials just such as the tales of 
daring seamen would supply, with the double resource 
of strange fact and of embellishment at will : and. in 
all probability, also with a tendency to give to places 
and persons an aspect not too inviting to the Greeks, 
who might have seemed capable of becoming, as indeed 
thev did become, their competitors in a lucrative pur- 
suit. 

i Od. xrii. 424-444. 2 Od. iii. 318-322. 

§ H. iii. 6. See in the Eeme des Deux Mondes for Oct. 1856, Re- 
view of the work of the German missionary. Dr. Krapf. pp. £86. 904. 
These Pigmies are 1 hauts d'un metre a un metre trente centimetres/ 



THE PHCENICIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS. 129 

Among the reasons for supposing the materials of 
this part of the Odyssey to be Phoenician, come first 
these two, that Greek experience could not have sup- 
plied them, and that the Phoenicians could. 

Thirdly, we are brought into contact, while the scene 
is laid in this region, with an altered mythology. 
Most of the Olympian deities retire, for the time, from 
the stage. On the other hand, the prerogatives of 
Poseidon are enhanced ; and we even find him appar- 
ently presiding at an Olympian meeting. 1 A new 
deity, faintly glanced at in the Iliad as having Trojan 
sympathies, comes forward in full personality and with 
distinct attributes. Poseidon's sway seems to lie 
towards the west and north : it is as we move east- 
ward that we encounter Helios, the Sun. He appears 
as a recognized member of the Court of Immortals : 
he has descendants, and satellites, and an island on 
earth especially consecrated to him. Here, too, we 
trace the strongest marks of the sacredness of the ox, 
an idea wholly alien* to the Hellenic mythology. And, 
in these Books of the Poem, both sea and land are 
peopled with new and strange half-human races, and 
with a fresh series or cycle of personages properly 
mythological, who stand in no relations to the most 
familiar of the Greek deities, but only to Poseidon and 
Helios. Nay a change even of diet confronts us ; and, 
as we get clear away from the Hellenic world, the ox 
ceases to be used as food, his place being taken by 
sheep and swine. In short the evidence is full and 
thick, to the effect that we have passed into a new and 
foreign world. 



i Od. viii. 322, 344. 
9 



180 



JUVENTUS MUNDT. 



When such evidence has reached the point of suffi- 
ciency for a legitimate induction, it gives us authority 
to pronounce Phoenician, from the company in which 
we find it, even what may not of itself and directly 
bear the stamp : and further, when reflected on the 
Hellenic world, it enables us to discern and identify 
many notes of Phoenician influence, which, but for 
this clue, we should have been unable to detect. 

And the consequence is, that we find the debt of 
Greece to Phoenicia to be very large : so large as to be 
inexplicable, until we bear in mind that, if the Phoeni- 
cians were the only foreigners at that time in ordinary 
contact with Greece, it is highly probable that all, 
which the Greeks knew or received through the arrival 
of Phoenician vessels, would with them commonly bear 
the Phoenician name. It may indeed well have hap- 
pened that the name Phoenician should, for the Greek 
people of that day, become the synonym or represen- 
tative of ' foreign ; ' so that whatever came from Syria, 
Assyria, or Egypt, would sound as Phoenician to the 
Homeric ear, much as in later times every foreigner 
in the Levant was a Frank, and as in Abyssinia (we 
are told), a foreigner is, at this our own epoch, termed 
an Egyptian. 

Phoenicia, so understood, comes to mean for Homer, 
when taken in its widest sense, the East : and the con- 
clusion to which I am led, as the probable result of an 
inquiry much too large to be here set out in detail, is 
no less than this : that, under cover of the Phoenician 
name, we can trace the channels, through which the 
old parental East poured into the fertile soil of the 
Greek mind the seeds of civilization in very many (to 



THE PHOENICIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS. 131 



speak moderately) of its most conspicuous prov- 
inces. 1 

To begin with Greek commerce and navigation. 
Both these pursuits were in Phoenician hands at the 
epoch of the Poems. Ever since the time of Minos, 
without doubt, the Greeks had been their apt pupils : 
but, even at the epoch of the Troi'ca, they were far 
behind their masters. From what Homer says of the 
Arcades, 2 I conclude that the Pelasgian tribes were not 
apt to acquire nautical habits. 

It is on general tradition that we must in a great 
degree rely for showing that Greece owed to Phoeni- 
cia, by the immigration of Kadmos, the gift of letters : 
and these were probably at first rudimentary symbol- 
ical signs, rather than a regular alphabet. For, had 
an alphabet been conveyed to Greece several genera- 
tions before the War, we must surely have perceived 
more of its results. But the general tradition, thus 
understood, receives both direct and indirect support 
from the text of Homer. Proitos, ruling over, or, as it 
might well be rendered, mightier than, the Argeioi, 3 
sends by Bellerophon a fatal message, couched in signs 
which were intelligible, not to the bearer, but to the 
receiver. Now one of the seven gates of Thebes bore 
the name of Proitos. 4 He is spoken of as one who had 
come in and acquired a sovereignty in Greece by 
strength or talent. 5 On the one side, he is in relations 
with the family of Sisuphos, which we shall find reason 

1 The argument is partly stated in the Quarterly Review for Jan- 
uary, 1868, art. ' Phoenicia and Greece.' 

2 II. ii. 614. 3 II. vi. 157. 

4 Paus. ix. 8. 4; JEsch. Sept. 360; Eurip. Phoen. 1109. 

5 II. vi. 159. 



132 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



to suppose Phoenician ; on the other side, with the 
royal house of Lycia, as to which we have already 
found similar presumptions. 1 And these facts date 
from a period of two generations before the War. Yet, 
in the ordinary dealings of the Greeks, we find nothing 
like written memorial or record. It appears, then, as 
if an art of writing, but one of rude and ill-developed 
contrivance, remained in Greece as an occult art, the 
privileged possession of a few Phoenician families. 

The Pelasgians have been sometimes supposed to 
have brought the art of building with hewn stone into 
Greece. And yet the rival name, commonly given to 
the ancient remains of this class, is Cyclopian. But 
what is Cyclopian is, as we see from the Odyssey, im- 
mediately related to Poseidon and to the cycle of Phoe- 
nician tradition. Now I think we may lay down this 
rule : that wherever Homer mentions solid building, 
or the use of hewn or polished stone, we find it always 
in some relation to the Phoenicians. Tiriins is 4 the 
well-walled.' 2 But Apollodorus, Strabo, and Pausan- 
ias 3 report (in no conflict with Homer) that it belonged 
to Proitos, and was built for him by the Cyclops. The 
wall of Troy, 4 which so long defied the Greeks, - was 
built by Poseidon 5 the Phoenician god : that is to say, 
by Phoenician artisans. The same supposition will 
apply to another Trojan edifice, the palace of Priam. 6 
Again, there were polished stones in the mansion of 
Kirke ; 7 a Phoenician goddess. There was a court 



1 II. vi. 153, 168. 2 II. ii. 559. 

3 Apollodorus, B. ii. c. 2 ; Strabo, viii. p. 372 ; Pans. ii. 16. 4 ; Pind. 
Pragm. 642. 

4 II. xxi. 516. 5 II. xxi. 446. 
6 II. vi. 242, 243. 7 Od. x. 211. 



THE PHOENICIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS. 133 



before the cave of the Cyclops 1 built with hewn stone ; 
and the Agore or market-place of Scherie 2 was con- 
structed in like manner ; both scenes belonging to the 
Outer or Phoenician world. 

That the Phaiakes, the people of Scherie, now 
Corfu, were Phoenicians, has been argued by Col. Mure 3 
from their name and their pursuits. There are abun- 
dance of confirmatory arguments ; such as the worship 
of Poseidon as their chief god ; 4 the descent of their 
royal house from him ; 5 the return of Athene from 
Scherie' to Athens by Marathon, 6 a place which was out 
of her way, but which appears, from a comparison of 
the word with the Marathus of Phoenicia, 7 to have been 
a Phoenician settlement. Now we observe, that these 
Phaiakes prided themselves especially on their skill 
in games : in boxing, wrestling, leaping, running : 8 
and Odysseus gained immense honor by his successful 
cast of the quoit. 9 The games in Scherie are the only 
games regularly described in Homer, besides those of 
the Twenty-third Iliad. They do not include the horse 
or the chariot race, nor is the horse mentioned any- 
where in Scherie. But they appear to give us a clear 
indication that the use of these competitive matches in 
feats of bodily strength was derived from the Phoeni- 
cians. And if so, then, taken in connection with the 
absence of the horse from Scherie, they suggest a natu- 
ral explanation of what I for one have found a most 
difficult subject, namely, the close connection between 
the horse and the god Poseidon, by the following hypo- 

1 Od. ix. 185. 2 od. vi. 267. 

3 History of Greek Literature, i. 510. 4 Od. vi. 266. 

5 Od. vii. 56. 6 Od. vii. 80. 1 Renan, Phenicie, pp. 20, 97. 

8 Od. viii. 100-103, 158-164. 9 Od. viii. 235, seqq. 



134 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



thesis. That the institution of games, being Phoeni- 
cian, was under the god Poseidon. That the legend 
of the Centaurs, and the immense preponderance of 
interest attaching to the chariot-race in IL xxiii., 
warrant us in the belief that the Hellenic tribes, much 
given to horsemanship, introduced the horse into the 
institution of the Games. And lastly, that the horse, 
by his introduction into the Games, which (from II. 
xi.) we know to have taken place at least two genera- 
tions before the Tro'ica, came under the special care 
and patronage of Poseidon. 

With respect to fine art, it seems impossible to re- 
sist the clear and ample evidence of the Homeric text, 
to the effect, first, that works well deserving that name 
in all essentials .existed in the time of Homer ; 1 and 
secondly, that they are exhibited to us as proceeding 
from a Phoenician source. 

Lastly, there is reason from Homer to suppose, that 
not perhaps the vital spark of poetry, but yet the use 
and art of music came to Greece from those whom he 
calls Phoenicians. In the first place, it is only in the 
palace of Alkinoos that Homer has presented us with 
the Bard actually at work ; not only as one regularly 
installed in the household, but with his successive lays 
given at length. In the palace of Odysseus, the Poet 
only mentions, and that but once, 2 the subject of the 
lay : in the palaces of Menelaos and Nestor, which af- 
forded admirable opportunities, we do not hear of the 
Bard at all. Again, when we enter the mythologic 
circle of the Phoenicians, we have all the beings of the 
highest order, whom it contains, engaged in music : 



1 See ' Hephaistos ' and 'Art/ infra, Chap. VIII. sect. ix. ; and 
Chap. XIV. sect. ii. 2 Qd. i. 326. 



THE PHOENICIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS. 135 

the Sirens, who may be called goddesses of the chant ; 
Calypso and Kirke, who have no special connection 
with the art, but both of whom are found singing in 
their respective abodes. 1 

If these reasonings be well founded, it may be asked 
what contributions were made by Pelasgians and 
Hellenes to that marvellous aggregate which we know 
as the Greek nation. The answer, I presume, would 
be this. That the Pelasgian races brought into Greece 
the pursuits of agriculture, and the habits of a settled 
life. That the practice, or discipline (it was more 
than a sport), of hunting, which had so powerful a 
hold on the mind of Homer, and that a high political 
genius, together with an extraordinary excellence in 
war, were rather due to the masculine habits, both 
mental and bodily, of the Hellenic tribes. But that 
the main question is not the actual possession of this 
or that accomplishment, of this or that institution ; it 
is the possession of the quality, in soul or body, which 
is adapted first to receive the gift as into a genial bed, 
and then so to develop its latent capabilities as to 
carry them onwards, and upwards, to its perfection. 
Among all the gifts of the great nations of modern 
Europe, how many are there which we can affirm to 
be, in each case, absolutely original ? 2 

But then follows the just demand of a sound criti- 
cism, that for such gifts as it may seem that the East 
may have conveyed to Greece at the time when its 
energies were beginning to expand, we ought to be able 
to point out an adequate personal medium, through 

1 Od. v. 61 ; x. 221. 

2 It seems to be admitted that the very bagpipe of the Highlander 
is a comparatively modern introduction. 



136 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



which the communication was effected. It would be 
much to lay all this honor upon Minos, whose empire, 
whatever it was, had passed away, and the more en- 
during fruits of whose political achievements do not 
seem, for the time, to have reached beyond the bounds 
of Crete ; or upon Kadmos, whose influence, whatever 
it had been, certainly had not made the' Thebes of the 
Troic period an ' eye of Greece ' or a recognized centre 
of its civilization, as it ought to have done had he sup- 
plied the channel through which were so largely trans- 
mitted by his mother-country the gifts of civilization : 
not to mention, that with respect to each of these per- 
sonages it is questioned whether they were real, or 
only mythical. Minos, indeed, stands near the period 
of the War. But Kadmos is more remote ; and I learn 
from distinguished authority that his name signifies 
simply one coming from the East. Either way, it may 
justly be urged that a channel should be indicated for 
those most fruitful communications, which I suppose 
to have taken place. To this reasonable demand I 
propose to suggest a reply. 

But here our path must be a little circuitous. In 
my Studies on Homer I have endeavored to point out, 
that we have no warrant from the Poems for speaking 
of an iEolic dialect of the Greek tongue, or of supposed 
iEolians as the prevailing race of Greeks at the Troic 
or the Homeric period. Nor is Homer merely silent on 
the subject ; for while he tells us nothing of the exist- 
ence of the iEolians as a tribe, he tells us of Aiolid 
houses, and gives us to understand that from this 
stock proceeded a considerable proportion of the reign- 
ing families of Greece during and before his time. 
From him we hear of Sisuphos reigning in Corinth, 



THE PHOENICIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS. 137 

descended from Aiolos : of the Neleids in Pulos, of 
Pelias, of Aison, Pheres, Amuthaon, all similarly de- 
scended : of Augeias reigning in fertile Elis, to whom 
tradition gives a similar extraction. The question 
arises, were these Aiolids Phoenician ? 

If they were, we have to add to them, first, Kadmos 
and Minos, already reckoned ; then the great house of 
the Actoridai, which is described as being descended 
from Poseidon ; then Proitos, who made himself King 
of the Argeioi; and, lastly, there is every reason to 
suppose that Danaos was a Phoenician. That in the 
later tradition he stands for an Egyptian is not to be 
wondered at, when we consider how the two countries 
melted into one another, in the view of the early 
Greeks, like a concave line of bays upon a coast trend- 
ing towards a distant horizon ; and while Phoenician 
vessels were the channel of communication, Phoenicia 
itself was, before the time of the Tro'ica, deeply 
charged with Egyptian elements. M. Renan has found 
a district in the neighborhood of Tripoli called Dan- 
nie, 1 or Dyanniyeh. So in the old Irish histories we 
find that the third recorded invasion of the island was 
effected by the Tuath-de-Danaans, who are stated to 
have been a Greek people. 2 No doubt they are set 
down as Greek, because of the connection established 
in Homer between Greece and the Danaan name. But 
we see at once, so far as the Irish tradition is con- 
cerned, how much more appropriate it becomes, if the 
name Danaan be of Phoenician extraction. Again : 
Pausanias tells us 3 that there stood at the reputed 



1 Phenicie, p. 123. 

2 The Irish before the Conquest, by M. C. Ferguson, p. 7. 

3 ii. 16. 4. 



138 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



landing-place of Danaos, on the Argive coast, a temple 
of Poseidon Genesios, an association which at once 
assigns to that personage a Phoenician origin. 

I return, then, to the question of the Aiolids. And, 
first, as to Troas. We have found signs that in Ilios, 
Troy of the plain, the Phoenicians themselves, or the 
Phoenician worship of Poseidon, had been cast out; 
and this ejection is probably represented in the poetic 
or traditionary fiction, that the god Poseidon had be- 
come bitterly hostile to the city of Priam. Not so in 
Dardania ; for Poseidon specially protects ^Eneas, the 
heir to that sovereignty, and rescues him, at the criti- 
cal moment, from the attack of Achilles. 1 This at 
once betokens a relation between Poseidon and the 
Dardanian branch of the royal house of Troas. 

Here history comes in to our aid. Pausanias 2 and 
others assure us that, in the historic period, there were 
iEolians at a place called Assos in Troas, and that an 
iEolian race held what was reputed to have been Troy. 
And the general connection of iEolians with the wor- 
ship of Poseidon may, I believe, be taken as an uncon- 
tested fact. 

Everything combines to raise the presumption thus 
obtained, about the Phoenicianism of the Aiolids, to 
the rank of a rational conclusion. Take, for example, 
the fact that Homer never mentions Aiolos himself in 
conjunction with his Aiolids. Considering their illus- 
trious position, this reticence demands observation ; 
especially as in almost every case Homer names the 
person who stands at the head of one of his genealo- 
gies. If Aiolos were a Greek, either born or natural- 



i II. xx. 318-340. 



2 vi. 4. 5. 



THE PHOENICIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS. 



1C9 



ized, it seems wholly inexplicable. But if Aiolos were 
an immigrant who never lost his foreign character, or 
if he were the famous foreign sire or ancestor of men 
who acquired sovereignties in Greece ; or, thirdly, if he 
were only a mythical formation, representing the for- 
eign paternity of a group of distinguished men who 
had cast their lot in that country, then nothing can be 
more in keeping with the general method of the Poet 
than that, just as he cuts the thread which connects 
the Pelopids with Tantalos (and, in the preternatural 
order, the thread which connects Demeter with Perse- 
phone), so he should cut the thread which connects 
the Aiolids with Aiolos. 

Again, observe the link supplied by horse-breeding, 
and by the introduction of the horse into the Games. 
Two generations before the Troica, Augeias, a reputed 
Aiolid, holds Games in Elis, 1 probably at what was 
afterwards Olympia : and at these Games there were 
chariot-races : and it is in direct connection with 
Games that all which relates to horses is placed under 
the sanction of Poseidon, 2 whom tradition so long con- 
nected with the Olympian contests. 3 Eumelos, an 
Aiolid, has the finest mortal horses of the army. 4 The 
Trojans, who had JEolian relations, are famous for 
their horses. Sisuphos, an Aiolid, reigns in Corinth : 5 
and this is one of the districts where Poseidon strives 
against another deity for the sovereign worship, 6 and 
obtains it as far as the low ground is concerned. 7 

i II. xi. 699-702. 2 ii. xx iii. 581-585. 

3 Pindar, in the Olympic Odes. 4 II. ii. 763. 

5 II. vi. 153. 6 Pi n d. 01. xiii. 4. 

7 For a large collection of particulars about Poseidon, see Gerhard, 
Ursprung, &c, des Poseidon, in the Berlin Transactions ; and Preller, 
Gr. Mythologie, vol. i. p. 452. 



140 



JUYENTUS MUNDI. 



If then Aiolos was foreign, and was connected with 
Poseidon, he could hardly be other than Phoenician. 
We turn then to those books of the Odyssey which 
we have found to have been constructed out of Phoe- 
nician materials. And here we meet him, exactly such 
as we might have anticipated, in consonance with the 
foregoing data. If Aiolids, settled in Greece, had 
brought the use of the horse into the Games, nothing 
could be more natural than that Homer should mythi- 
cally connect Aiolos with the horse : accordingly, even 
in this foreign region, and upon this sea-girt isle, 
Aiolos is the son of Hippotas, 1 a name of Greek ety- 
mology. If the Aiolids were sea-borne to Greece, so 
Aiolos dwells in a sea-island, and is the guardian of 
the winds. If they were a large variety of houses from 
one ancestor, either real or supposed, so we find him 
supplied with six prolific pairs of children : brothers 
and sisters, coupled together in a way which was alien 
to Greek manners, but which we may, reasoning from 
analogy, suppose to have been much more agreeable to 
Phoenician customs and ideas. If the actual or ideal 
person represented in Greece by the name of Aiolos 
was popularly taken to be connected with the ruling 
houses of Greece, and with Troy, then it is quite 
natural that he should feel an interest in the Trojan 
War. Accordingly, the Aiolos of the Odyssey inquires 
minutely of Odysseus about both Troy and the Greeks : 2 
which, be it observed, neither Kirke nor Calypso does, 
nor does any other of the foreign personages encoun- 
tered by Odysseus in his tour. 

I suppose, then, that the Aiolos of the Tenth Odyssey 



i Od. x. 1-4. 



2 Od. x. 14-16. 



THE PHCENICIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS. 14l - 

is the ancestor, real or reputed, of the Aiolid houses 
of Greece named in Homer ; and I remark with some 
confidence, that if he is not this, he is a personage 
wholly unaccountable and unintelligible. 

This somewhat lengthened though inadequate state- 
ment will, I hope, appear to be justified, when it is 
remembered that the historical question, which under 
the legendary veil invites investigation, is one of 
extreme interest: it is the question of the amount, 
the nature, and the channels of the earliest powerful 
Semitic influence upon an Aryan or Japhetic people. 

And this leads me to my concluding point in the 
present argument. It may naturally be asked, is there 
anything in the name Aiolos, which is a Greek name 
and perhaps a mythical one, to account for its being 
applied by Homer to Phoenician or Semitic families ? 
This question has been considered by Dr. Hahn, 1 who 
offers his solution of it. He observes that, among 
many nations, warriors have been tattooed, to make 
them look terrible : and that a tattooed man might very 
well be called Aiolos, or 4 variegated.' He thinks, 
therefore, that the name Aiolos, which ran, as we see, 
wholly in the ruling class, meant a warrior. 

Without denying the ingenuity of this hypothesis, 
I offer another : for I feel that Dr. Hahn's interpreta- 
tion is scarcely applicable to the Greeks of Homer. 
Among them we hear nothing whatever of tattooing ; 
nor is the name Aiolos, with its derivatives, particularly 
attached to warriors ; nor have we reason to suppose 
that the Phoenicians were in any manner superior 
to Hellenes in war, however they may have acted 



i Hahn, Alb. Stud. p. 247. 



142 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



as teachers, or as forerunners, in arts and knowl- 
edge. 

I lean to another explanation of the name, which 
appears to me very simple and sufficient. I find it 
in a fact stated incidentally by Professor Rawlinson. 1 
He tells us that, among the Persians, dresses were not 
often patterned, but depended generally for their effect 
on make and uniform color only. And he adds, 4 In 
\ all these respects we observe a remarkable contrast 
between the Aryan and the Semitic races, extreme 
simplicity characterizing the one, while the most elab- 
orate ornamentation was affected by the other.' 

If this were so, then nothing could be more natural 
than that when a few prominent and conspicuous per- 
sons from a Semitic country came to settle in Greece, 
and especially when they held there a position and 
attitude of superiority, they should bring with them the 
customs and dress of their country, and that to them, 
in respect of the style of their habiliments, the name of 
Aiolos, meaning patterned or variegated, should attach. 

Let our line of thought now enter upon a somewhat 
wider field. 

If an empire, connected with the Phoenician name, 
had already weighed upon Greece within the memory 
of man ; if Phoenicians, very probably officers of that 
empire, had penetrated the country at a number of 
points, and had usually been able, wherever they ap- 
peared, to obtain the ruling power ; we can have no 
cause to wonder that Homer should have regarded 
them as a great power in the past, even if to the 
Greeks of his day they were chiefly known as mer- 
chants or as freebooters. Hence we can be at no loss 

1 Ancient Monarchies, vol. iv. p. 326. 



THE PHOENICIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS. 143 

to comprehend how it is that his epithets for them, 
oloophrones, olophoi'a eidotes, agauoi, go much 
beyond what was necessary to describe the astute man 
of business, or even the daring kidnapper. 

The detection, if it be a real one, of these powerful 
Semitic influences, both in the Greece of Homer, and 
as they had operated before his time, opens a new 
perspective into the ancient history of the world. The 
knowledge of this history has recently much advanced, 
through research of many kinds in various quarters, 
and especially through the interpretation of the Egyp- 
tian hieroglyphics. Before this region of knowledge 
was unbarred to us, the poems of Homer were justly 
regarded, even by those who appreciated the evidences 
for their unity of authorship, as might have been some 
isle of Delos floating on the sea of time, without pos- 
sessing root or anchor visible to human eye, and with- 
out affording us any data whereby we might measure 
the distance of the extraordinary phenomenon from the 
continuous and solid ground, the true fyteigog, or con- 
tinent, of history. But now the case is altered. Men 
of learning think themselves to have obtained means 
of computation, whereby they can follow the annals of 
Egypt, and, in a degree, of the countries related to it, 
upwards, for thousands of years before the Advent, along 
the stream of time. So far as I understand the matter, 
modern Egyptology adopts in general the chronological 
computations of the priest Manetho, as sufficiently 
corroborated by the deciphered records of the country. 
For myself, I do not understand by what certain crite- 
rion Manetho could distinguish, at the period when 
he wrote, between the contemporaneous and the suc- 
cessive dynasties of the far olden time. It seems that 



144 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



he attempted it, and in some cases refrained accord- 
ingly from heaping together in series all the years of 
all the recorded reigns. He may not have been very 
far wrong : but how can we know that he was right ? 
To me the constant changes 1 of the chief seat of 
government, which are allowed to have taken place, 
suggest the suspicion that there may be more of con- 
temporary and less of successive power than is sup- 
posed, and that the gross figures of the chronology may 
be exaggerated. But I take them as very rough approxi- 
mations to the truth, which doubtless lies, not beyond, 
but within them. And, so viewing them, it appears to 
me that the period perhaps has arrived when the Poems 
of Homer may, for the first time, be regarded as be- 
coming gradually susceptible of chronological handling, 
and when attempts may not be hopeless to give them 
their approximate if not exact place in relation to the 
main chain of events, which marks for those ancient 
times the central movement of the history of man. 

And this with reference firstly to Phoenicia ; se- 
condly and principally to Egypt ; which, as I have 
shown, the Greeks of that early day could hardly have 
the means of distinguishing from Phoenicia with regu- 
larity or precision. 

It is plain, from both the Poems, that, at the epoch 
of the Troica, Sidon was in its vigor. The Sidonians 
are mentioned apart from Phoinike, in the list of 
the countries which Menelaos visited. 2 Here, as we 
find, were produced the noblest works of metallic art; 3 
here the richly embroidered robes. 4 From the king 
of Sidon (who has the poetical name of Phaidimos) 

1 Le Normant, Histoire Ancienne de FOrient, Paris, 1868, vol. i. 
p. 187. 

2 Od. iv. 84. a Qd. iv. 617. * n. v i, 290. 



THE PHOENICIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS. 145 

Menelaos receives a noble gift. 1 And some of 
Homer's Phoenician personages are also called Si- 
donian. 

Now the period of the Sidonian supremacy closed, 
as we are told, with the razing of that city by the 
Philistines in the year 1209 b.c. 2 Then began the 
supremacy of Tyre ; a city of which we have no indi- 
cation throughout the poems, unless we may be thought 
to find one in the name of Turo, 3 the grandmother of 
Nestor. From many signs it appears that Turo must 
have been Phoenician. But Homer tells nothing, 
knows nothing, of a Tyrian. It seems pretty clear, 
then, that the epoch of the War, and probably of the 
Poems, must have been antecedent to the fall of Sidon, 
reputed to have taken place in 1209 B.C. I do not here 
attempt to enter into the complicated questions with 
reference to the succession, juxtaposition, and inter- 
mixture of races in Phoenicia, where all the three great 
families of Noachian man seem to come in turn upon 
the stage ; but I simply treat their influence as a Se- 
mitic influence, on the evidence of their Semitic tongue, 
and in conformity I believe with the general judgment 
of persons entitled to authority. 

Now with respect to Egypt. Ample proof is afforded 
by the verse of Homer that the Greeks of the Troic 
period had for their proper national name the name of 
Achaians. We also see very clearly that it had come 
into vogue but one or two generations before the 
Troic a. We know that it lost its hold as a national 
name at, if not before, the conquest of the Heracleidai, 
two or three generations later. 

i Od. iv. 617 ; xv. 117. 2 Le Normant, vol. ii. p. 286 

3 Od. xi. 235. 
10 



146 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



At the end of the nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty, 1 
and with the reputed date of the fourteenth century 
before Christ, under Merephtah, successor of Kham- 
ses II or Sesostris, it appears from the inscriptions that 
the people of Libya and of the North, who had formerly 
succumbed to the Egyptian power, effected an invasion 
of that country in return. In this invasion participated, 
among others, Achaians of the Peloponnesos, and La- 
konians. They made great havoc in the country ; 
but a great battle was fought, in which they were 
entirely defeated, and their enterprise was broken up. 

It seems in a high degree probable, that this invasion 
occurred during the period which I have described 
as defining the prevalence of the Achaian name, and 
the duration of the supremacy of that noble race of 
Greeks. 

It is much more likely that the effort was made be- 
fore the War of Troy, than after it ; for the condition 
of Greece was then less impaired by exhaustion and 
by internal revolutions. We have no means of saying 
whether, so far as Greece was concerned, it was a na- 
tional, or only a local effort. It is probable that Crete 
may have been its base : that island was nearest to 
Egypt ; it had a strong Phoenician element, and prob- 
ably a considerable marine ; and in one of the fictions 
of the pseud-Odysseus, when representing himself as 
a Cretan of high rank, he declares that he undertook 
a voyage to Egypt, 2 an effort in navigation of which we 
hear in no other quarter. 

We need feel no surprise at the silence of Homer 
with respect to this daring enterprise. The Poet, fre- 



1 Le Normant, ii. 286. 



2 Od. xiv. 246. 



THE PHOENICIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS. 14T 

quent and even copious in his allusions to the minor 
legends of his country, seems almost jealous of the 
greater ones. The ship Argo is mentioned but once 
in the Poems ; 1 the allusions to the war of Thebes are 
slight. But if little careful to mix with his own great 
theme the records of what he might deem rival his- 
tories, in a case like this invasion, another and more 
powerful order of motives would come into play. He 
sang for the glory of Greece ; and as on this occasion, 
sharing the disastrous fate of their Libyan allies, his 
countrymen were utterly worsted by the foreigner, it 
was no fit subject for his minstrelsy. Yet it is very 
remarkable that in the fictitious narrative just made, 
the expedition takes the form of an invasion. Great 
havoc at first takes place. 2 But the Egyptians are 
roused ; a battle is fought ; the invaders are slain or 
taken ; a pretty exact counterpart, although in minia- 
ture, of the history of the actual invasion, as it ap- 
pears in the Egyptian records. 

Under Thouthmes III, 3 of what is termed the eigh- 
teenth dynasty, and at a date taken to be about 1600 
B.C., the military power of Egypt reached its zenith. 
The Empire extended east and northwards over Mes- 
opotamia, Syria, Phoenicia, and even into Armenia. 
This military dominion was so constructed as to recog- 
nize the local governments, under the suzerainty of the 
Pharaohs. Among the supports of its power was a 
fleet, 4 which established its supremacy in the Medi- 
terranean waters. There can be little doubt that this 
fleet was, both in its men and material, Phoenician. 



i Od. xii. 70. 

3 Le Normant, ii. 239. 



2 Od. xiv. 263. 

4 Le Normant, ii. 246. 



148 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



An inscription at Karnak 1 shows that it conquered 
Crete, the islands of the Archipelago, and portions of 
the coast, at least of Greece and Asia Minor. It pene- 
trated into the Black Sea ; and it acted on the popula- 
tions of the Libyan coast. Centuries appear to have 
passed away before this empire, probably not too strin- 
gent in its action, crumbled into fragments. But it 
subsisted amid much vicissitude. In 1462 B.C. the 
nineteenth dynasty is reckoned to commence. It 
seems doubtful whether the maritime supremacy, 
which there was no native marine able to maintain, 
had not already dwindled to nothing. The second 
monarch of this dynasty, Seti I., was a great warrior; 
but he made no effort to retrieve the dominion of the 
sea. 

Here I may venture conjecturally on the following 
observations. The Egyptian history of the maritime 
conquests of Thouthmes III, if we are allowed the 
almost inevitable assumption that the nautical instru- 
ment for creating the supremacy was Phoenician, 2 
reads like an account in other words of what Thucy- 
dides has slightly but firmly sketched from general 
tradition, and what we are enabled to gather with a 
considerable amount of proof from Homer, respecting 
the empire of Minos in Crete, over the Archipelago, 
and on the continent of Greece. 

But the empire by sea soon vanished ; while the 
empire by land, extending it appears into Asia Minor, 
continued, though in varying phases, to subsist. There 

1 Le Norman t, ii. 247. 

2 In much later times we find Phoenicia performing much the same 
office for the Persian king. Herod, iii. 19 ; vii. 44. 



THE PHCENICIANS AND THE EGYPTIANS. 149 

is at least one indication gathered from Homer and 
the general tradition jointly, which would lead to the 
conclusion that the War of Troy took place after 
the fall of the first, but before the disappearance of 
the second, portion of the Egyptian power. The 
Poems are altogether opposed to any idea that a 
maritime Egyptian empire still existed. Crete, appar- 
ently its old head-quarter, was not at the Troic period 
the centre of prevailing power that it had been before. 
But Memnon was among the allies of Troy ; 1 and 
all tradition reports that Memnon was Egyptian. It 
may perhaps be worth noting, that the Memnon of 
Homer is gifted with the highest personal beauty, and 
that this honor would not have been awarded by the 
Poet, who above all things admired the lighter hair 
and complexion, to the swarthy, nay tawny, natives 
of the Egypt of our geography. Is it not also highly 
improbable that Priam, whose list of allies in the 
Catalogue stops at Lycia and Caria, should have been 
able to draw an auxiliary force from so great a dis- 
tance ? But if the political Egypt, the Egyptian su- 
premacy or empire of that day, reached as far as 
Armenia or Asia Minor, the difficulty disappears at 
once ; from such a region Memnon might have come, 
and the account of Homer, together with the later 
tradition, becomes natural and intelligible. 

In the year 1311 B.C., which is considered as a date 
astronomically ascertained, 2 Rhamses III, the last great 
military monarch of Egypt, came to the throne. Meso- 
potamia, however, was under Egyptian rule as late as 
1150 B.C. 



i Od. xi. 522. 



2 Le Normant, p. 200. 



150 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



The time may be at hand, when, from further inves- 
tigations, it will be possible to define with greater pre- 
cision those periods of the Egyptian chronology to 
which the Homeric Poems, and their subject, thus 
appear to be related. 

In the mean time it may reasonably be pointed out 1 
that the discoveries already made tend to show that 
those inquirers have not been wrong, who have as- 
signed the greatest measure of antiquity, and of his- 
torical character, to the works of Homer. 

1 Le Normant, p. 302. 



» 



CHAPTER VI. 



On the Title ' Anax Andron.' 

There is a substantial distinction between titles, and 
epithets descriptive of station or office. Titles are in 
effect that class of descriptions which have been grad- 
ually accepted by society and established in common 
usage for the purpose of indicating a certain rank or 
function, just as a given weight and form of the pre- 
cious metals is appointed by law or custom to indicate 
a certain value. In both cases the symbol, becoming 
familiar to the minds of all, is accepted in common use 
without examination. 

By titles, and also by epithets, I understand, for the 
present purpose, either adjectives or substantives, as the 
case may be. 

Epithets, or descriptive phrases, may by degrees grow 
into titles : and it is probable that all titles, properly so 
called (I do not now speak of those denoting relation- 
ship), may begin in descriptive phrases. 

One sign of a title is, that it can either be combined 
with the name of the pers©n to whom it belongs, or 
substituted for it. 



152 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



In Homer, the substantives hegemones, aristees, 
and the adjectives skeptouchoi (of kings), theioi 
(of bards), are epithets or descriptive phrases. Again, 
with respect to individuals, echephron (for Pene- 
lope), pepnumenos (for Telemachos) , polumetis 
(for Odysseus), are descriptive phrases. But B as il- 
eus, Basileia, for king and queen, are titles. Anax 
sometimes means ruler or lord, somewhat vaguely, as 
a title ; sometimes noble, as a class ; sometimes lord, 
as a master or proprietor, for example, of slaves or 
animals. It differs from Basileus in these particu- 
lars : first, that it is more rarely used as a title ; sec- 
ondly, that, while both indicate a superiority, the idea 
conveyed by anax leans to ownership and absolute 
command, while the Basileus is a ruler not an owner, 
a ruler of freemen organized under the social bond, 
and limited by civil right which he is himself bound 
to observe. 

As a designation of dignity, Basileus is the high- 
er, as well as the more definite. The word nearest to 
it is koiranos; but this has hardly, in Homer, set- 
tled down into a title. The ruling office is also more 
vaguely indicated by the expressions xqs/ojv, and noi^v 
lawv, shepherd of the people. Basileus is well ren- 
dered by ' king:' anax by 6 lord,' a word at once 
wider, more absolute, and less elevated in the sense it 
conveys. 

But we find in Homer the remarkable phrase anax 
andron, lord of men; and this is used, not descrip- 
tively, but, beyond all question, as a title. Now, as the 
word anax has no reference to reciprocal rights and 
duties, it is very remarkable that we should find it thus 
used with regard to relations towards men, and evi- 



ON THE TITLE ' ANAX ANDRON.' 



153 



dently freemen, in a title enjoyed by certain individ- 
uals. The physiognomy of the phrase, so to speak, is 
not that of Hellenic society ; for Hellenic society was 
already founded in rights. It suggests therefore a 
history of its own, and a character either foreign, or 
archaic, or both. 

The facts relating to the use of this phrase are as 
follows : — 

It is applied to Agamemnon forty-four times in the 
Iliad, and twice in the Odyssey. 
It is also applied to 

^neas, II. v. 311. Augeias, II. xi. 701, 739. 

Euphetes, II. xv. 532. Eumelos, II. xxiii. 288. 

Anchises, II. v. 268. 

Thus then anaxandronisa stock or staple phrase 
for Agamemnon. Yet it is applied to five other per- 
sons, all of them sovereigns ; but none of them at all 
approaching Agamemnon in point either of personal 
eminence, or of power. It is not therefore on account 
of his personal eminence or of his power that the title 
is bestowed on Agamemnon. 

But again. While it is given thus frequently to 
Agamemnon, it is given but once to four of the other 
five, and but twice to Augeias. One of these person- 
ages, Euphetes, is named but once in the Poems, 1 and 
then he is named with the title. Augeias (except once 
in a patronymic) is only mentioned twice, 2 in the 
legend of the Eleventh Iliad ; and twice with the title. 
Eumelos has the title once, out of five passages in 
which he is named. Anchises once only, out of thir- 
teen. But iEneas is very frequently named in the 



i II. xv. 532. 



2 H. xi. 700, 738. 



154 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Poem, and yet never with the title except once. He 
appears to hold it as heir-apparent to his father's 
throne ; and his possession of it marks its hereditary 
character under such circumstances. 

It is to be noticed, that all the six names to which 
Homer annexes the title are virtually of the same 
metrical value in the place of the verse where it is 
almost invariably so annexed. The same observation 
applies to the word Atreides joined with it in II. i. 7. 
At first sight, then, it might appear that metrical con- 
venience had prompted the use of the phrase. But 
then, 

1. Two of the six names, in their simpler forms, 
Aineas and Augeas, are modified into Aineias and 
Augeias in order to fall in with the title. 

2. It cannot be metrical convenience which gives it 
so very frequently to Agamemnon, and so rarely to the 
others. 

3. There are at least from thirty to forty names 
of equivalent metrical value in the Poems, including 
many princes, heroes, and notable persons, which never 
receive the title. Among these are, of the living, 
Patroclos, Sarpedon, Antenor, Diomedes, Agapenor, 
Menelaos, Aigisthos ; and of the dead, Amphion, Hera- 
cles, Eurustheus, Adrestos, Rhadamanthos, Meleagros. 

Homer never inflects the title, giving it always in 
the nominative. He never severs the phrase by tmesis, 
except once only, through inserting the copulative par- 
ticle ts. Once, in II. i. 7, it lies between the second 
and fourth foot of the verse ; in every other case it is 
found between the third and fifth. Some of these par- 
ticulars may be held, according to the laws of Homeric 
use, to add dignity to the title. In illustration of this 



ON THE TITLE 4 ANAX ANDRON.' 



155 



proposition, I will observe that, conversely, in the few 
instances where the Poet introduces himself into the 
verse, he never once uses the nominative. Again, 
Enosicthonis used for Poseidon forty times ; thirty- 
nine of them in the nominative. Diogenes is found 
in the nominative and vocative only. The masculine 
kudistos is used sixteen times, all in the vocative. 
Eurucreion twelve times, only in the nominative. 

The phrase anax andron entirely disappears from 
use after Homer. 

Let us now look to particulars connected with the 
application of the phrase to each of the six names 
severally, in order to discover the thread, if there be 
one, on which in common all are hung. 

I. Agamemnon. 

The sovereign of all the Greeks is nowhere described 
by personal epithets of pointed characteristic force. 
Eight times he is called by the epithet dios, which 
indicates some specialty of excellence, and which was 
fairly due to his prominence whether among rulers or 
among warriors. Generally he is marked either by the 
patronymic, which is simply historical, or by what may 
be called official epithets, creion, eurucreion, poi- 
men laon. But the staple or stock phrase is anax 
andron. 

I have already given a reason why this cannot be on 
account of his great power and sway. Again, the pas- 
sages which most forcibly describe these are the lines 
about the Sceptre in II. ii. 100-108, and that which gives 
him his place in the Catalogue, II. ii. 576-580. In 
these he is not called anax andron, but creion. 
In two other passages of the Poem he is personally 



156 



JUYENTUS MUNDI. 



glorified : as to his appearance in II. ii. 477-483, and as 
to his arming in II. xi. 15-46. In neither of these is he 
an ax andron. Neither corporal distinctions, then, 
nor official position thus far appear to supply a basis 
for the phrase. Yet the very emphatic use of it after 
the proper name in the prefatory passage of the Poem, 
which contains so much, as well as its frequent reitera- 
tion, prove its general dignity and importance. Again, 
therefore, it seems likely that we are to look somewhere 
in the past for the secret of its meaning. 

Unfortunately, in the case of this great family of the 
Pelopidai, the past at a certain point, and that too one 
soon reached, becomes obscure. 

All that Homer desires or intends us to know of the 
extraction of Agamemnon is contained in the famous 
and very significant passage of the Sceptre, II. ii. 101- 
108. Here we are informed that 

1. Hephaistos fashioned it. 

2. He gave it to Zeus. 

3. Zeus gave it over to Hermes Diactoros, the Agent, 
or Gro-between ; or Ambassador. 

4. Hermes gave it to Pelops, ' the driver of horses.' 

5. Pelops gave it to Atreus, shepherd of the people 

6. Atreus dying left it (ihni) ; it remained or passed 
over to Thuestes, rich in flocks. 

7. From Thuestes in like manner it was left to 
Agamemnon (leXm). 

8. It conveyed suzerainty (at the least) over all 
Greece and its numerous islands. 

The first question is, what are we to say to the theo- 
techny or preternatural machinery here introduced ? 
If we are to give it an ethnological meaning, the names 



ON THE TITLE ' ANAX ANDEAN.' 



157 



of Hephaistos and of Hermes give it a color foreign, 
and such as I have called Phoenician. Little stress 
could be placed upon this, if it were an isolated phe- 
nomenon. But the sphere of the art of Hephaistos, and 
of the general activity of Hermes, lies so completely 
beyond the limits of Greece, that I cannot but attach 
weight to their names as indicating that, before Pelops, 
the family had been foreign, and probably Asiatic. The 
passage also demonstrates that the starting-point of the 
house is one at which it had attained to princely rank. 

Next, the epithet given to Pelops tends to support 
the tradition, which places him in relations with the 
Olympian Games, and with the god Poseidon. 

Further ; Atreus first appears in the Pelopid time as 
' shepherd of the (or a) people.' There is something in 
this phrase which seems to point him out as the first 
head, in the Pelopid line, of a settled and consolidated 
Greek sovereignty. The same inference may be drawn 
from the fact that his name supplies the standing pat- 
ronymic ; as Neleus supplies it to Nestor. There is 
also some more direct evidence. Heracles may be 
reckoned as living one generation and a half before 
the War, since he has in it both a son and grandsons ; 
and Eurustheus, who was his contemporary, reigned 
in Achaic Argos, which afterwards became the seat of 
the Pelopid power. There seems to be only room, there- 
fore, in the natural course, for one generation of sov- 
ereigns in Achaic Argos after Eurustheus and before 
Agamemnon. 

To this generation probably belong both Atreus and 
Thuestes, the father of Aigisthos. In the change of 
phrase from fooxs, ' gave,' to slam and Homer may 
seem to glance at a departure from the common line of 



158 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



direct succession, and a return to it. Thuestes, then, 
not being in that line (or, if we were to suppose him in 
it, being in it only as the brother of Agamemnon), we 
have but two generations of ancestry, and but one of 
established sovereignty, given for the house of Aga- 
memnon ; Pelops having probably founded the power 
of the house, but not placed it in its fixed seat, or ob- 
tained for it the full measure of acknowledgment and 
positive authority. 

We see plainly, from this circumstantial account of 
the derivation of the Sceptre, that the Pelopids did not 
simply subvert, or succeed to, a prior dynasty ; but that 
they held a new dominion, legitimated, in poetic phrase, 
by the gift of Zeus. And we know, from the com- 
parison of dates and particulars already made, that this 
was the great Achaian dynasty, having the old Argeian 
dominion for its centre, but reaching much beyond its 
bounds, with an undefined though acknowledged su- 
premacy over Greece and its whole coronet of islands. 

The joint and simultaneous rise of the Achaian race, 
and of the house of Pelops, is well and clearly founded 
in the facts of the text : which, however, carries us but 
little farther. Tradition asserts that Pelops was the 
son of Tantalos, and Tantalos the king of a race of 
Phruges. Homer introduces him to us in the Under- 
world, together with a variety of personages, all of 
whom have relations, in one form or other, with Greece. 
Placing him among such persons, he still conforms to 
his rule by not naming him in the passage of the 
Sceptre ; since he never, on any occasion, deduces a 
Greek dynasty from a confessedly foreign ancestor. 

The nature of his punishment, pointing to some form 
of greed as his offence, is also well assorted with the 



ON THE TITLE 4 AN AX ANDRON. 



159 



tradition which represents him as the last holder of 
his inherited power, and his son as an immigrant in a 
foreign land. 

We have no means of determining, from the Poems, 
whether Tantalos was reputed to be of divine descent ; 
but it is far from improbable, since most of those 
among whom he appears in the Odyssey were so de- 
scended. 

Post-Homeric tradition makes Niobe the daughter of 
Tantalos. The tradition of Niobe herself is recited 
by Achilles, 1 and from this we may infer, first, her dig- 
nity and fame ; next, her having relations with Greece. 
The theotechny, too, of the tradition exhibits her as 
one of the great of the earth; and the term laous, 2 
applied to those who were vicariously punished for her 
offence, evidently means her subjects. Very possibly, 
the epithet rfixopog, commending the beauty of her hair, 
may indicate that the Poet regarded her as a Greek, 
either born or naturalized. 

Homer places the mourning Niobe on Mount Sipu- 
los, near the Acheloos ; and Pausanias found the re- 
puted tomb of Pelops on the summit of the hill. The 
Phruges of Tantalos are reputed to have been a 
Thracian people. 3 Their name 4 appears even in At- 
tica ; and a harbor in Elis was called after Tanta- 



Pelops is commonly said to have gained the hand of 
Hippodameia, and the throne of Elis, by success in 
the chariot-race. Local traces of him remained. He 
was worshipped in a sanctuary hard by the temple of 



los. 5 



i II. xxiv. 602. 

3. Strabo, xii. p. 579 ; xiv. p. 680. 
5 Paus. V. xiii. 1-4. 



2 II xxiv. 611. 
4 Thuc. ii. 22. 



160 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Zeus Olympios ; 1 and revered there among heroes, says 
Pausanias, as Zeus was among gods. He is the re- 
puted founder or restorer of the Games who raised 
them to their historic celebrity. Another tradition 
brings him from Olenos into Elis ; no improbable indi- 
cation of his route from the north. Nine islands off 
the coast of Methana were called the islands of Pelops 
in the time of Pausanias ; 2 and we have already 
noticed in that quarter traces of the Achaian name. 

That the Achaians were Hellenes, and that they 
rise to pre-eminence with the Pelopids, are circum- 
stances which lead us to look for further traces of the 
connection. Now Strabo 3 seems to attach a great 
value to a tradition which he repeats, that the Achai- 
ans of Phthiotis came with Pelops into the Pelopon- 
nesos, occupied Laconia, and gave it the name of Achaic 
Argos ; and subsequently, when the Achaians were 
driven out of Laconia, they drove out an Ionian race 
from Aigialos, and gave their name to that region. 
This account of the journey of the race, and of Pelops, 
is in accordance with the traces we have found in 
Homer and elsewhere of the passage of the family of 
Pelops towards the south, and with the emergence of 
the dynasty of Atreus. It is also in marked accord- 
ance with the emphatic application of the Achaian 
name to the inhabitants of Phthie, and with the promi- 
nence that the Poet gives to that district in the War, 
through its Myrmidon soldiery and its illustrious chief, 
who are thus placed in near relations with Agamem- 
non and his adherents. Although we have found in 
many places vestiges of the local use of the Achaian 



1 Paus. V. xiii. 5. 



* ii. 34. 



3 Bk. viii. 5, p. 365. 



ON THE TITLE ' ANAX ANDRON.' 



161 



name, this is one of only two where it is expressly and 
directly assigned to the inhabitants of a district as 
such. The other is in Crete ; and there no such great 
importance attaches to the statement, which exhibits 
them in conjunction with Dorians and other races. 

History at this point comes in to our aid. Down to 
the late era of Polybius, the connection of the Achaian 
name with Phthie still subsisted. There were always 
Achaians of Phthiotis ; and in the year 205 B.C. 
Quintius, the Roman general, recognized the Achai- 
ans, upon inquiry, as the Thessalian race. 1 

And the close relation of this race to the Pelopids 
is in no respect more clear than in this, that as they 
rose, so they fell, with that particular dynasty. In the 
post-Homeric literature, all of which follows the Dorian 
conquest, the Achaian name has ceased to be a current 
designation for the Greeks. 

We are not entitled, however, to carry the connec- 
tion backwards in time beyond Pelops. We may 
reckon with confidence that, if Tantalos had been 
recognized as a Greek, he would have been named by 
Homer in the line of the ancestry of Agamemnon. 

Yet not even the Heracleid victors in the struggle 
could afford to let slip the repute and credit of the 
Achaian sovereignty. So although Tisamenos, their 
representative in blood, had been expelled, and had 
betaken himself with his followers to Aigialos, his 
tomb in aftertimes was shown at Sparta ; and hard by 
it the feast of Pheiditia was kept: with an explana- 
tory tradition that their fathers, admonished by an 
oracle, had fetched the remains of the last Pelopid 



i Polyb. xviii. 30-37. 
11 



162 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



sovereign from their home at Helike, in Achaia. On 
the other hand, the Achaians had now set up a legen- 
dary ancestor, Achaios by name, whose image they 
professed to exhibit ; and along with it they cherished 
a tradition, that the family of Tisamenos had contin- 
ued to reign among them down to the time of Ogugos, 
in the third century before Christ, when their league 
was formed upon the basis of democratic institutions. 
In neither quarter do we see any such honor paid to 
the yet older dynasty of Danaos or of Perseus. All this 
seems to enhance the dignity of this Achaian sovereign- 
ty, to which the title of an ax andron was attached, as 
if it were possessed of some peculiar attribute which 
it had not received, and which it did not transmit. 

We have now examined the proper import of the 
phrase, and its use in the case of Agamemnon. We 
have found that its groundwork does not lie either in 
his personal qualities or in his position as general-in- 
chief or as king. It appears to point backwards to a 
state of things anterior to the constitution of Achaian 
society ; which, as we find it in Homer, though imma- 
ture in its forms of administration, was profoundly 
penetrated with a political spirit, and had completely 
possessed itself of the substance of civil right, though 
not in the form of law. It suggests, then, a chief- 
taincy or hereditary superiority, older than the settle- 
ment of the family in its present form and power, and, 
whether founded in blood or otherwise, having refer- 
ence to an origin in time and place beyond the limit of 
Greek history, even in that wide sense of the phrase 
in which we apply it to the chronicles of Homer. 

Let us now see what further lights can be supplied 
from the cases of the five personages who share this 
title with Agamemnon. 



ON THE TITLE ' ANAX ANDRON.' 



163 



II. Anchises, and III. .ZEneas. 

If the strong sense of nationality in Homer has led 
him everywhere to keep back from his hearers what 
he may have known or heard of a foreign origin for 
any Greek race or family, it seems plain that least of 
all would he be disposed to lift the veil in the case of 
a people whom the Greeks had conquered, and whose 
great chieftains especially he exhibits throughout in 
marked though skilfully softened and disguised in- 
feriority. 

As the Helloi are first introduced to us in the 
mountains above Thessaly, so the Dardanians appear 
in the recesses of Ida, above the Ilian plain. Dardanos 
is expressly declared to be the son of Zeus ; as Aga- 
memnon may probably have been his reputed descend- 
ant. On the one side we have Zeus, with the Helloi 
for his prophets : on the other, Zeus of Ida, Zeus 
Idaios. The term anax andron applied to a father 
and his son, both living, shows the derivative and more 
than hereditary character of the title, and supports the 
hypothesis that it springs from some remote fountain- 
head. But why is it that, given both to Anchises and 
^Eneas, it is not given to Priam or to any of his family ? 
Here there is opened to us a curious field of inquiry. 

Certain facts are on the face of the Poems. 

Priam 1 had, before the war, been a potentate, ex- 
celling all in that vicinity. Besides the Allies, and 
besides his own troops under the command of Hector, 
who are described in terms somewhat like those applied 
to the troops of Agamemnon in the Greek army, the 



i II. xxiv. 543-546. 



164 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Dardanians appear as a separate contingent ; and there 
are three other military contingents, 1 one certainly, but 
perhaps all, included under the name of Troes, forming 
the third, fourth, and fifth divisions of the army. The 
King of Troy, then, probably held a position less 
powerful indeed, yet resembling that of Agamemnon 
in having, besides his immediate subjects, various 
princes under his suzerainty. 

There was at Troy an Union or Chamber of dr^ioye- 
Qovreg? which occupied the same relative place as the 
Bovh] or Council among the Greeks. It was composed 
of royal and princely persons ; yet Anchises appears 
neither in this body, nor anywhere upon the scene of 
the poem. It is not directly stated that he was alive ; 
yet it seems to be assumed. 3 If he lived, his absence 
from the Council is remarkable, as his dominions were 
engaged in the war, and iEneas, before he came to 
Troy, had only been rescued by Poseidon from the 
hands of Achilles. 4 This prince is never spoken of as 
in possession of his inheritance. 

The sovereignty held by Anchises was the older of 
the two ; for Dardania was built by Dardanos, 5 Troy 
apparently by his grandson Tros, or his great-grandson 
Ilos. Priam was the great-grandson of Tros through 
Ilos and Laomedon, Anchises through Assaracos and 
Capus. We cannot judge with certainty from this 
genealogy, the longest and most detailed in the Poems, 
whether the branch of Ilos or that of Assaracos was the 
younger. But the presumption arising out of his re- 
moval from the original seat into the plain seems to be 



i II. ii. 824-839. 2 n. iii. 146-148. 

4 II. xx. 90-93 ; 128-131. 



3 II. xx. 240. 
5 II. xx. 215-240. 



ON THE TITLE ' AN AX ANDRON.' 



165 



against Ilos. It is true he is named before Assaracos : 
but in II. vi. 76 we have JEneas named before Hector 
by Helenos ; and here likewise he gives precedence to 
his own birth. Again, iEneas takes no part in the 
councils of Hector ; and his personal qualities are very 
faintly marked. Yet, like Hector, he is honored as a 
god ; 1 and the special protection given him by Posei- 
don marks him as a most important personage. His 
name is combined with that of Hector 2 in a way which 
almost implies a parity of military command. More- 
over, there is jealousy between him and the house of 
King Priam. He hangs on the outskirt of the battle, 3 
and cherishes resentment, because he does not receive 
due honor from the monarch. Yet the character of 
Priam was genial and kindly. Again, iEneas is taunted 
by Achilles 4 with entertaining the hope of succeeding to 
the throne of Troy. In answer to this taunt, he utters 
no contradiction of it, but simply gives his genealogy. 
This seems very like an assertion of his title, which, if 
it existed, could only rest on seniority. 

iEneas does not thwart Hector in counsel like Polu- 
damas : so that there could be no umbrage taken on 
that ground. 

Zeus had presented Tros with certain horses, in com- 
pensation for the loss of Ganymede. These horses re- 
mained with Laomedon in the plain. But Anchises 5 
brought his mares to them surreptitiously, and got pos- 
session of the breed. And it is here that this prince is 
called anax andron, as though to say, in virtue of his 
being the lineal representative of the elder branch, he 



i II. xi. 58 ; cf. v. 467. 2 n. v i. 75, 77. » II. xiii. 459. 

4 H. xx. 179-183. -5 n. v. 268. 



166 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



thus asserted his claim to the use of a gift which had 
been presented to Tros the common ancestor. 

I have said, that the import of this title seems to 
carry it back to a period anterior to the political or- 
ganization of society which we find in Greece. Are we 
then to suppose, that it also came into the family of 
Dardanos before his settlement on Mount Ida ? I reply 
that first there is not the same cogency of reason for 
supposing it : for the relation of the Asiatic king to his 
people was far more accordant than that of the Greek 
to the idea implied in an ax andron. But neither 
need it be rejected on the ground that Dardanos is the 
son of Zeus. For, in these remote ascriptions of Divine 
origin 1 to royal houses, possibly little more in substance 
is intended than is less pointedly conveyed in the pecu- 
liar and exclusive ascription to Kings of the epithets 
Diogenes, Zeus-born, and Diotrephes, Zeus-nurtured. 
Certainly they are to be distinguished from cases of 
nearer mythological parentage ; and they can hardly 
mean more than something of special dignity as among 
kingly houses, or else a simple attribute of the class. 
But in truth the case of Dardanos and his family will, 
if I mistake not, be found to fall in with the general 
course of the argument. 

The use of this title is a remarkable sign of affinity 
between the Trojans and the Greeks : but here is not 
the place most convenient for examining into the 
general signs of that affinity. 

We have seen that, in the case of Anchises, the title 
anax andron is employed as if to justify him in an 
act of aggression in virtue of this dignity. Again, in 



i II. xx. 215. 



ON THE TITLE 6 AN AX ANDR5n.' 167 

the case of iEneas, we are told at a great crisis, 6 and 
now would have perished utterly the anax andron 
iEneas, had not Aphrodite perceived his plight.' 1 As if 
to say, ' great though he was, it would have been all 
over with him.' There will be occasion to notice in 
other cases, how pointedly this phrase is used in con- 
nection with some striking act or crisis, and by no 
means as an otiose or merely ornamental epithet. 

IV. AUGEIAS. 

The Elian contingent is sent to the War under four 
separate leaders ; of whom one is Poluxeinos, son of 
Agasthenes. He is termed a prince or lord, and (by 
patronymic) descendant of Augeias. 2 

In the Nestorian legend of the Eleventh Iliad, we 
are told that Neleus 3 sent to Elis a four-horsed chariot 
to contend in the Games ; but Augeias, who is here 
termed anax andron, laid hands on the horses, and 
detained them. Hence the invasion from Pulos, effected 
by Achaians, under the guidance of Athene. Aga- 
mede, the daughter of Augeias, was profoundly versed 
in drugs. 4 And she was married to MoKos, a descend- 
ant of Poseidon through Actor ; who resided at court, 
and was slain by Nestor in the Pulian raid. 5 

We may justly suppose that Augeias ruled over Elis, 
because the noble Actorid family were attached to his 
court as the court of a superior. Whereas at the time 
of the Troi'ca, when the unity of the Elian State 
appears to have been broken up, the Actorids of the 



1 II. v. 311. 
4 II. xi. 741. 



2 II. ii. 615-624. 

5 II. xi. 738, 740, 741. 



3 II. xi. 670 seqq. 



168 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



time command distinct military divisions, upon a foot- 
ing of equality with the descendant of Augeias. It is 
probable that Elis, like Boeotia, had already undergone 
revolutions ; and for the same cause, namely, its fer- 
tility. 

Other circumstances enhance the presumption of the 
great position and high descent of Augeias ; especially, 
his presiding over the Games. To these Games, as we 
see, the neighboring States, some half-century before 
the war, already sent their chariots to compete. To 
these it seems probable that Thamuris 1 was on his 
way, when he met with the calamity which deprived 
him of the gift of song ; for we find he had reached 
the Alpheos, at a distance from his own country, and 
from the court of Eurutos, to which he apparently be- 
longed. 

With respect to the descent of Augeias, Homer is 
silent, and we must look for the aid of general tradi- 
tion. He was reputed to be the son of Salmoneus, 
and thus a descendant of Aiolos. In this manner he 
comes within the circle of the Phoenician traditions. 
And though Aiolos is of divine descent, like Belle- 
rophon, 2 the text of the Odyssey supports this tradi- 
tion 3 (1) by giving him the epithet of amumon, 
which appears to be used by Homer not as an epithet 
of character, but most commonly as one indicating a 
divine descent, of the same class as that of the Dar- 
danids ; (2) Because the name of his daughter Turo 
points to Tyre ; (3) Because she is called zvrtaxtQuaf 
an epithet only used in two other places, 5 and both 



i II. ii. 594-600. 2 n. v j. 191. 3 Od. xi. 235 seqq. 

4 ' daughter of a noble sire.' 5 II. vi. 292 ; Od. xxii. 227. 



ON THE TITLE £ ANAX ANDRON.' 



169 



times with respect to Helen, who is treated as the 
daughter of Zeus, dibg knytyoLvia. 1 

Tradition also places in Elis one of the ancient 
towns called Ephure\ The text of Homer, without 
directly confirming the tradition, is more than probably 
in accordance with it. For Odysseus visited Ephure 
to obtain poison for arrows. 2 And it was feared that 
Telemachos might pay a like visit. 3 Now it is certain 
(1) that this must have been an Ephure* on the west 
coast of Greece ; therefore probably in Peloponnesos, 
for intercourse does not appear to pass northwards be- 
yond the Gulf of Corinth ; (2) that it could not be 
the EphurS of Sisuphos, since this to all appearance 
had now become Corinth, and is so named in the Cata- 
logue. 4 Furthermore, in both cases Ephur£ was a 
place where the use of drugs was studied ; and in this 
use the daughter of Augeias, as we have seen, was 
skilled. We may, then, reasonably assume that Au- 
geias dwelt at EphurS, though at the period of the 
Tro'ica the place was not significant enough to be 
named in connection with the force from Elis ; but few 
towns or settlements of which, however, are recited in 
the Catalogue. 

In the case of Augeias, as of Anchises and iEneas, 
we may observe the very emphatic use of the phrase. 
The anax andr5n detained the mares: i.e. he kept 
the mares, as if presuming upon his dignity of anax 
andron. 



i H. iii. 199, 418, et alibi. Cf. Od. iv. 569. 
3 Od. ii. 328. 



2 Od. i. 259. 
4 II. ii. 570. 



170 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



V. EUPHETES. 

Euphetes is named but once by Homer. Meges, a 
Greek chieftain, is saved from the spear-stroke of 
Dolops by the stoutness of his many-layered breast- 
plate, 1 brought by his father Phuleus from Ephure% 
hard by the River Selleeis, where it was given him by 
his host the anax and r on Euphetes. 

Euphetes, then, is manifestly the king of Ephurd : 
and is at once brought within the circle of those tradi- 
tions to which the name belongs. 

The question, over which Ephure Euphetes reigned, 
is at first sight less important than the relation estab- 
lished by the name itself. Strabo 2 reckons, besides 
Corinth, an Ephur£ in Elis, one in Thesprotia, one in 
Thessaly, and five others, which had fallen to the con- 
dition of mere villages. In Homer, we hear (1) of the 
Ephure of Corinth, (2) indirectly of that of Elis, (8) 
of the Ephur£ from which Heracles carried off Astuo- 
cheia, the mother of Tlepolemos, after a destructive 
raid. This would appear to have been in Thessaly ; 
since Tlepolemos comes from Rhodes, and we have 
other examples of connection between Thessaly and 
the southern islands in the persons of the descendants 
of Heracles ; 3 but none between those islands and the 
west of Peloponnesos. 

According to Strabo, 4 Euphetes was the son of 
Augeias. If so, nothing can better accord with the 
Homeric text, which makes Meges 5 the commander of 
a contingent from the coast over against Elis ; which 



i II. xv. 530. 
4 p. 459. 



a p. 332. 
& H. ii. 627. 



3 II. ii. 676-680. 



ON THE TITLE 6 ANAX ANDRON.' 171 

places him in battle at the head of the Epeian troops ; 1 
and which states that Phuleus, his parent, had emi- 
grated on account of a feud with his own father. 2 
Phuleus is not condemned on account of this feud, but 
on the contrary is commended as dear to Zeus. It 
was in every way fit, then, that he should continue to 
be united by the ties of guestship with the lord of Elis. 
And as to the use of the title an ax andron, the 
case of Euphetes may thus in all probability fall under 
that of Augeias. It appears indeed possible, though 
I will not now venture to dwell upon it, that the 
name Ephure^ may of itself be a sign of Phoenician 
relations. 

YI. EuMelos. 

Eumelos commands before Troy the forces of his 
father Admetos. The seat of his throne seems to have 
been at Pherai, a name not improbably akin to Ephure. 3 
And here we find it holding the same relation to the 
an ax andron Eumelos, as Ephure holds to two other 
bearers of the same title, namely Augeias and Euphetes. 
Further, we have seen that the name Ephure is also 
connected with the Aiolid line in the person of Sisu- 
phos. Now we find from Homer that Alcestis the 
mother of Eumelos was the daughter of Pelias, and 
that Pelias was the spurious child of Poseidon, by 
Turo afterwards the wife of Cretheus the Aiolid : 
while in the male line, which would govern the de- 
scent, the family was descended from Pheres, 4 and 
Pheres was one of the legitimate sons of Cretheus. 



i II. xiii. 692. 

3 II. ii. 711-715 ; Od. iv. 798. 



2 II. ii. 629. 
4 II. ii. 763. 



172 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Eumelos therefore is an Aiolid, and as such is sprung 
from Zeus. 

He is mentioned six times in oblique cases, either of 
his own name or of his patronymic Pheretiades, and 
five times in the nominative ; but only once as a n a x 
andron. 1 This again is on the only occasion that 
called for the use of an emphatic phrase, since his 
only conspicuous action in the Poems is that, being 
possessed of the finest horses, 2 and excelling in their 
management, he springs up much more rapidly than 
any other chieftain, to accept the challenge of the 
chariot-race in the Twenty-third Iliad. 3 

The Homeric evidence then, gathered from various 
parts of the Poems, and slightly aided by the filling 
in of blanks from tradition, may be summed up as 
follows : — 

1. The employment of this phrase seems not to be 
accidental or to be meant for mere ornament ; but to 
rest upon a common character attaching to those who 
bear it. 

2. It is borne only by ruling princes, or their 
heirs. 

3. But though a title of peculiar dignity, it does not 
indicate a present superiority of power or prerogative 
to other contemporary rulers. 

4. In the cases of the Dardan princes, and of Eu- 
melos, the text shows expressly that it accompanies 
descent from Zeus, at a remote date, and without the 
name of a mother. 

5. In the cases of Euphetes and Augeias, tradition 
states, and the text indirectly but strongly supports, a 
similar descent. 

i II. xxiii. 288. 2 n. ii. 763, » n xx m 2 88. 



ON THE TITLE 6 ANAX ANDRON.' 



173 



6. In the case of the Pelopids, all direct indications 
fail us ; but even here, Pelops, or his reputed father 
Tantalos, would appear to be a personage standing 
relatively to Greek history in much the same position 
as Aiolos, that is, as the foreign head and founder of 
a ruling race ; a character, which also apparently at- 
taches to Dardanos in Troas. 

7. In each and all of these cases, the ancestor ap- 
pears upon the scene of Greek tradition as already a 
prince ; and always at a period antecedent to the for- 
mation of anything like polity in Greece. 

8. It is in this attitude that we are justified in be- 
lieving Homer presents to us those archaic characters 
in Greece, whose prior history and descent were for- 
eign, so that if distinctly unfolded they would have 
broken his uniform rule by representing leading 
elements of Greek society and nationality as derived 
from foreign sources. 

9. The nature of the phrase anax andron mean- 
ing nearly, as it does, c master of men,' seems to bear a 
foreign rather than a Hellenic color, and is probably 
drawn from a state of civil society, which may be called 
either more patriarchal, or more Asiatic, than that of 
the Hellenes : a state where power was more absolute, 
and right less distinctly recognized, than they were 
respectively in the Greece of Homer. It is a title 
which, whatever be its lingering glories, has not in it 
any savor of liberty. 

10. The name is nowhere found in connection with 
Pelasgian associations ; but it attaches strongly to 
what had been all along the ruling element in Greek 
society from its first recorded formation, whether in 
connection with the Achaian or with the Phoenician 



174 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



name ; namely, a primitive chiefship or superiority, 
linked to something which, as to time and place, lay 
beyond the Greek horizon proper. 

11. Under these conditions, it is not difficult to see 
that the title of anax andron could not apply (for 
example) to Achilles or Odysseus, whose families were 
not the representatives of these ancient sovereignties : 
or to Nestor, whose descent from Poseidon was veiled 
by spurious birth, and who was connected with Aiolos 
only in the female line : or to Sarpedon, who is di- 
rectly affiliated to Zeus : neither do any of them, nor 
does Diomed or Ajax, stand in any relation to the 
characteristic name of Ephure, or of the Selleeis. 

12. Nor is it difficult to understand why this title of 
sovereignty and honor, alone among those employed by 
Homer, passes away with him. 

We cannot say whether it was accompanied with 
any prerogatives of a substantive character, as it evi- 
dently was with a peculiar form of dignity. Those 
characters and families, who had not risen by effort 
and degree, of whom no human memory bore record 
that they had at any period been less than the leaders 
and the lords of men, and whose names were associated 
with the earliest guidance lent to Greece in her first 
struggles for civilization, might well remain as bright 
luminaries adorning the past of the race, until either 
a great lapse of time, or, more probably, a breaking up 
of the social and political system they had taken a lead 
in creating, should bring about their extinction. And 
it is change of this kind, on the brink of which Homer 
leaves us, as he disappears from us in the distance. 
In. soft music, he sings out the heroic age of heroes : 
and after him, as Hesiod tells us, a ruder and a darker 



ON THE TITLE ' ANAX ANDRON.' 



175 



age is sung in with a wilder music. The traditions, and 
the families, of the older time are submerged by the 
flood of Dorian conquest. The noble and refined 
Achaian succumbs to the halfjsavage Heraclid. The 
Hellenic world is resolved into a chaos, which devours 
its ancient ideas and institutions : though the spirit of 
life still breathes over the formless mass, and gradually 
moulds it into a new and more organized and splendid, 
if not a more pure and healthful civilization. 



CHAPTER VII. 



The Olympian System. 

Homer was the maker not only of Poems ; but also, 
in a degree never equalled by any other poet, 

1. Of a language ; 

2. Of a nation ; 

3. Of a religion. 

The common tradition of Greece recognized the poets, 
as having had a large share in the formation of the 
religion of the country. These poets were in particular 
Homer and Hesiod, as represented by the works as- 
cribed to them. But the difference is immense between 
the work performed by the author of the Iliad and 
Odyssey, and the author of the Theogony respectively. 
The latter, at a date very early without doubt, though 
sensibly later than that of Homer, placed upon record, 
and arranged, the mythological legends of the portion 
of country, supposed to have been Bceotia, within 
which he lived ; and the late position, given in the 
poem to the gods of the Olympian dynasty, is in ac- 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



177 



cordance with all the indications of the Homeric pro- 
ductions. But the mythology of Homer, instead of 
being a chronicle or a catalogue, is a supreme work of 
art, that lives, breathes, and moves, like the metallic 
statues of his own Hephaistos. And it is precisely 
the contrast between this wonderful performance and 
the Theogony of Hesiod, which enables us to conceive 
in some degree the immense power with which the ima- 
gination of Homer operated in shaping the characters 
of the Olympian gods, in adjusting their relations to 
one another, and in fixing the conditions of their 
government of the world, and of their intercourse with 
the children of men. On these great matters, a poem 
like that of Hesiod could have no other influence, than 
a register of births and deaths could have upon the 
social and political fortunes of a community. 

In the supernatural world of Homer, we find deities 
not only of different ranks and attributes, but marked 
with very great varieties of moral character and tone ; 
bearing marks of connection with different places, 
countries, races of men, and celestial dynasties, or 
theogonies, with very different degrees of respect paid 
to them ; and these again varying with races of men 
and local situations. 

At the same time, these beings have a head, a central 
place of habitation, a system and polity among them- 
selves ; to which, however, the various members of the 
supernatural order are very variously related. 

In a word, we appear to see a great mass of hete- 
rogeneous materials having reference to the unseen 
world, which, as they were probably settling down in 
the world of fact, from their recent contact, into more 
stable and normal relations, so, in the world of poetry, 

12 



178 



JUVENTUS MUNDT. 



they receive from the hand of the master an unity 
fitting them to constitute that intellectual and ideal 
whole, which we know as the Hellenic religion. In 
this process of constr notion, the actual belief, tradi- 
tions, and tendencies of the people could not but be 
the chief determining force. But the potent mind and 
imagination of the Poet, in all likelihood, exercised an 
influence in modifying the stages and fixing the con- 
summation of the process, which, if secondary and 
subsidiary only with reference to the powers before 
mentioned, may still be justly supposed to have been 
far greater than any ever wielded by any other Greek, 
whether legislator, poet, or philosopher. 

There is nothing contrary to reason in the suppo- 
sition that the condition of religion in Greece, at the 
epoch of Homer's existence, may have offered remark- 
able opportunities for the formative influence even of 
an individual mind. 

In a nation of one blood, which claims to be au- 
tochthonous or indigenous, because, since first the mi- 
gration of the primitive tribe was arrested, it has never 
changed its seat, we may look for a religion based upon 
the predominance of some single idea, and invested 
with great uniformity of color. 

But where, as in Greece, the nation itself is com- 
pounded out of a variety of factors, the religion will 
naturally assume a variegated aspect. 

Each race or family of immigrants arrives cum Pe- 
natibus et magnis Bis; brings with it its own con- 
ceptions and names of deity. These they set down 
for themselves upon ground already occupied by the 
religion of the former inhabitants, and by their tra- 
ditional conceptions. These conceptions will be in 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



179 



many cases representatives of the same original ideas ; 
and though diversely modified, after the separation of 
the races, according to the genius and associations of 
each branch, they will often claim the same attributes, 
and the respective worships will tend to compete and 
even clash together. 

Qf this clashing we find the mark in Homer, when 
two deities have the same function. Thus Athene* is 
even more supreme over war than Ares. A Paieon has 
to do with healing as well as Apollo. Poseidon is god 
of the sea ; but beneath him, yet in independence of 
him, is Nereus, inhabiting the depths ; and the sea is 
affected by the agency of Zeus, or Here, or Athene;, 1 or 
Apollo, with respect to breeze, and storm, and ship- 
wreck, as well as by his own agency. 

The same kind of competition is represented in 
Homer by the deposition, and relegation to a distance, 
of the older gods of the Nature-system, and by the 
legends of the youth, or infancy, of Hephaistos and 
Dionusos. 

Also this conflict of religions, growing out of the 
relations and conflicts of races, is powerfully exhibited 
in Homer by the division of Olympos into two factions 
during the Trojan War, and by the bold and effective, 
if to us incongruous, conception of the Theomachy, or 
Battle of the gods. 

In the later tradition, this clashing comes to be 
represented by the legends of contests between two 
deities for a given territory. Poseidon contends with 
Helios (the Sun) for Corinth ; and with Athene for 
Athens. A variety of other cases may be cited. 



i Od v. 108, 109. 



180 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Had the Poet worked up his mythological scheme 
out of Greek materials alone, we may be sure that the 
relations of subordination among the gods would have 
been at least as well defined, as those subsisting among 
the leaders of the army, or perhaps even the members 
of a well-ordered family. Whereas now we find first 
that Okeanos, as the head of an older though superseded 
dynasty, stands aloof, and is exempt from attendance 
at the Olympian court ; 1 and that the position of Zeus 
among its members reminds us of the position of the 
kings of France before Louis XI among their great 
feudatories. Poseidon, even singly, is not without pre- 
tensions to an equality of force : Athene, without pro- 
ceeding to physical resistance, does not hesitate to 
oppose in debate, as well as in veiled action, the 
councils of her father : and a combination of these two 
with Herd had once proved too much for his solitary 
strength. 

When the various worships thus met in competition 
on the same soil, the result could not but be, either 
that the objects of them were amalgamated ; or that 
some of them were expelled ; or that by division of 
functions, that is a compromise, their differences were 
adjusted. 

Of amalgamation we observe an example in the first 
deity of the Homeric poems. The Zeus of Dodona, 
and of the Pelasgians, becomes also the Zeus of the 
Hellic tribes. 

Of permanent expulsion we have examples in the 
Okeanos, and also in the Kronos, of Homer, with their 
followings respectively. 

Of the resistance to a new worship, and of its tem- 

i II. xx. 7. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



181 



porary exile, we have an instance in the driving of 
Dionusos into the sea by Lukourgos. 

But the great principle of the Homeric mythology 
is, adjustment by distribution of offices. And the an- 
thropomorphic idea greatly favored the application of 
this principle ; since it gave to the Poet all the varied 
functions and orders of humane society, both domestic 
and political, as a framework after which to arrange 
his Olympian personages. 

And thus it is that Homer, from living in the midst 
of an intermixture and fusion of bloods continually 
proceeding in Greece, acquired a vast command of 
materials, and by his skilful use of them exercised an 
immense influence in the construction of the Greek 
religion. 

It became with him, what it probably had never been 
before, and what it was not in the works of any later 
writer, a most gorgeous and imposing, and even in a 
certain sense a highly self-consistent, whole : contain- 
ing in itself, without doubt, many weak and many tar- 
nished elements, but yet serving in an important de- 
gree the purpose of a religion to control the passions 
and acts of men. 

The Olympian system of Homer is eminently what 
Horace describes as 

' Speciosa locis, morataque recte 
Tabula.' 

It is wrought out with pains and care, full of character 
and individuality, marvellous alike in the grandeur 
and the weaknesses of its personages — a work, in the 
very highest sense that is applicable to any human 
production, of true and vast creative power. 



182 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Even without the attestation of Plato, we might 
have been able to judge that it was in all likelihood a 
main instrument in establishing the dominant features 
of the Hellenic religion, such as we know them from 
the historic ages. Partly it reduced to unity the com- 
peting elements of the true Hellenic tradition, of the 
old Pelasgian Nature-worship, and of the Phoenician, 
Syrian, and Egyptian mythologies : partly it cast them 
into the shade of local, as opposed to national, devotion. 
In the poems of Hesiod, it appears to us as the latest 
form of Greek religion ; but, more artfully compacted 
than the rest, it acquired and retained a real suprem- 
acy among them, although the diversity of aspect never 
was effaced. 

Yet its character continually altered ; and altered 
for the worse. It has features which are sublime, and 
features which are debased. But the sublime features 
of the Olympian characters became, with the lapse of 
generations, less and less observable. The debased ones 
grew more and more prominent. And the profoundly 
interesting specialties of the several deities, indicating 
their respective origins, at length became apparently 
imperceptible even to the Greeks themselves. No one 
can closely and carefully examine the system of Homer 
without a deep interest : no one can find much ground 
for such an interest in the theological part of the re- 
ligion of the historic period. Only its ethical ideas, 
and the highly poetic ideas connected with destiny, 
retain any attractive power ; and from the mythology 
these ideas are, in the later stages of the Olympian 
system, almost wholly dissociated. 

The wonder indeed is, not that the Olympian 
religion should have failed to resist the corrosion of 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



183 



change, but that it should have been able in any man- 
ner to retain its identity. Devoid as it was of all 
authority, and even of the allegation of authority, for 
its origin, and not only unsustained, but belied, by the 
witness of surrounding nations, it probably had little 
else of unity than such as it derived from the great 
Bard of the nation, and from its imaginative splendor ; 
while it had none of the guarantees, real even if par- 
tial, which are afforded either by Books known and 
recognized as sacred, or by a compact and permanent 
hierarchy, dating, or professing to date, from the be- 
ginning of the system. If the Homeric poems stood 
in the place of the former, yet we can perceive for 
them no avenue to the mind and heart of man, except 
that of the poet, and the delight he gives ; 

% koX dEonuv aotddv 6 ksv Tepirrjoiv aetdtov. 1 

And as respects the latter, neither was the priest, as 
such, a significant personage in Greece at any period, 
nor had the priest of any one place or deity, so far as 
we know, any organic connection with the priest of 
any other ; so that if there were priests, yet there was 
not a priesthood. Its strength lay, then, in its beauty ; 
a beauty which, surviving the death of the subject in 
which it resided, had power to ravish the mind of 
Goethe, one among the greatest of modern poets ; and 
probably we could not name in all human experience 
a more signal instance of the vast power of the imagi- 
nation, than is to be found in the long life, and the 
extended influences, of the Greek religion. 

It found a way to the mind of man through his 
sympathies and propensities. Homer reflected upon 

1 Od. xvii. 385. 



184 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



his Olympos the ideas, passions, and appetites known 
to us all, with such a force, that they became with him 
the paramount power in the construction of the Greek 
religion. This humanitarian element gradually sub- 
dued to itself all that it found in Greece of traditions 
already recognized, whether primitive or modern, 
whether Hellenic, Pelasgian, or foreign. The govern- 
ing idea of the character of deity in Homer is a nature 
essentially human, with the addition of unmeasured 
power. It is at once obvious, then, that the elements 
of a profound corruption abound in his Olympian 
Court, although they affect very variously the person- 
ages who fill it. And the principle upon which it is 
constructed makes but too copious a provision for fur- 
ther deterioration. 

Such accordingly was the actual working of that 
Hellenic Theo-mythology, of which we must regard 
Homer as the great founder. With the progress of 
time it became more and more debased, and the dis- 
tinctions originally perceptible among its elements 
being worn away, it likewise fell into such a state of 
complexity as approached to chaos. 

But, while the popular creed thus degenerated, the 
intelligence and the speculative mind of the Greeks 
became more and more estranged from it. With the 
lapse of time we must learn to regard it, not as in 
Homer, under a single aspect, but under .three : as a 
religion of philosophers, a religion of legislators, and 
a religion of the people. By the philosophers, the ab- 
stract idea of deity was greatly purified and reformed ; 
but the sense of personality connected with it became 
feebler and more remote. In Aristotle, the most pro- 
found and powerful mind of Greece in the classical 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



185 



ages, as well as perhaps among the purest which the 
country produced, it is reduced, as a practical principle, 
to zero. Still, the lofty sentiments, thus elaborated 
in the abstract, again acquired much of the warmth of 
life in the writings of some at least of the dramatic 
poets ; and may thus have exercised influence in a 
wider sphere than that supplied to the few by the 
thoughtful studies of the Schools. 

Meantime the mythology, with its constant develop- 
ment and deterioration, continued to be accepted by 
the people ; while with a view, as must be supposed, 
to public order, all its institutions had the steady coun- 
tenance of the ruling authorities. 

It may then be believed that there resided among 
men, six, eight, or ten centuries after Homer, a much 
purer intellectual conception of deity than can be col- 
lected from his poems ; while, as a first necessity of 
wealth and civilization, a defined but narrow morality 
of property, so to call it, arose ; both in a form more 
determinate than any known to the Poet, and also sus- 
tained by the machinery of law and public policy. 

But, notwithstanding all this, a great real declension 
in other, and perhaps yet graver, respects had taken 
place. For the mass of the population, the abuses and 
corruptions of the older creed £ did not pass, but grew.' 
Not perhaps against society, which had learned to take 
care of itself, but against the unseen Ruler of the 
world, and against the sanctity of human nature, sins 
and loathsome abominations had come in, and were 
flourishing in a rank and foul luxuriance, which seem to 
have been unknown to the Greece of Homer. For the 
religion of his day had not ceased to be a power. 
Variously and imperfectly, but truly, men were com- 



186 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



manded and restrained by it. It presented a system 
of rewards and punishments, intelligible to its votaries, 
and operative, as it appears, to no small extent upon 
human conduct. And whatever may have been, as it is 
represented, the personal practice of the Homeric 
deities, their system of government was addressed in 
the main to good ends. It exhibited, generally speak- 
ing, though in an imperfect, yet in a real manner, 
superior power, armed and active on behalf of truth, 
justice, and humanity. This could not but be an 
engine of great good. That it was so, we may learn 
from a tone of general character, which certainly did 
not afterwards improve, and from the absence of the 
horrors already named, which afterwards abounded 
even in the more refined regions and in the educated 
classes of society. 

It may seem strange that the two processes of a 
speculative ascent and a practical decline, a mental 
discipline of the few and a general dissoluteness of 
life, should be simultaneous. But so it was, even to 
the day of the last dying throes of paganism. Never 
was the heathen creed, on its intellectual side, in a 
condition so sublimated, as when it perished under the 
blows of the Christian apologists and the influence of 
the Church. But also, never had its practical power, 
as a religious system elevating or constraining action, 
fallen so low, as in the days when its votaries were 
habitually content to deify even monsters in human 
shape, if they wore the imperial purple. 

To say, then, simpliciter, either that the Greek re- 
ligion as it grew old improved, or that it degenerated, 
would be to use equivocal and misleading language. 
By its side, and never in any degree taking its place in 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



187 



the minds of the many, there grew up a speculation, 
which was hardly a belief, but which put aside a mass 
of fables, and in many points approximated to the 
truth, concerning the nature of God. But as a living 
creed it worsened ; and as an instrument for the gov- 
ernment of conduct, it more and more lost its power. 

The reproaches of Plato against Homer, for the un- 
worthy treatment of the gods, can have little influence 
on our minds in the light of such knowledge as we now 
possess. It would appear, from the Cratylus for exam- 
ple, that Plato had little knowledge of the origin of the 
Hellenic mythology ; and the personages, who filled the 
chief places in it, had in his day assumed a sameness of 
color and position, which they had not in the time of 
Homer. In order to comprehend the method of the 
Poet, we must bear in mind (1) that many deities, 
afterwards completely naturalized, were in his day only 
making the first steps of their way into Greece ; 
(2) that deity is with him a most elastic idea, suscepti- 
ble of infinite diversities, in point of both virtue and of 
power ; ( 3) that he has a vivid conception of intercom- 
munion between the two natures, divine and human, 
which was probably lost in the time of Plato. 

If Ares and Aphrodite are exhibited by Homer in 
lights which are even ridiculous, we have to observe 
that nothing can be more profound, more entire, than 
the reverence of his mortals for Apollo and Athene, nay 
often for Poseidon and Here. This difference is not cas- 
ual ; it is in the whole manner of treatment : and what 
we seem to learn from it is, that among the Hellenes 
of his time, Ar£s and Aphrodite had as yet no regular 
recognition, no established worship. There is not a 
single indication of either in the Poems ; though it ap- 



188 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



pears from them that these deities were worshipped in 
Thrace and in Cyprus respectively. 

Apart from this, Homer's system of thought included 
a number of beings, whom he calls divine, but in whom 
the divine attributes are minimized. The Gigantes, 
who rushed to their own ruin ; the Kuklopes, who ex- 
hibit a perfectly brutalized humanity ; the Phaiakes, 
who in all manly qualities are represented as much 
below the Greek level ; all these were kinsfolk of the 
gods. 

A slight circumstance shows us how, in Homer, the 
divine idea could be reduced to the smallest dimensions 
of power. When the comrades of Odysseus ate the 
oxen of the sun, Lampetie, his daughter by Neaira, 
expressly called a goddess, 1 carried the news of the 
deed to her father. Obviously, then, she had not her- 
self sufficient power to prevent or punish this offence, 
committed by a mere handful of exhausted mariners. 
Neither could the Sun, who is called all-beholding, see 
the act from his pathway in the heavens, without her 
intervention as a messenger. 

The principal materials of religion which Homer 
found ready to his hand were, so far as appears, sup- 
plied by 

1. The Pelasgian or other archaic races, which had 
had possession of the peninsula prior to the Hellenes. 

2. The Hellic families and tribes. 

3. The Phoenician immigration. 

4. An Egyptian and oriental influence which we trace 
(a) in obscure traditions, and (6) in the actual remains 
of a worship clearly proceeding from this origin, which 



i Od. xii. 131-133. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



189 



endured down to the time of Pausanias. This was prob- 
ably brought to Greece through the Phoenician vehicle. 

The Zeus of Homer is equally Pelasgian and Hel- 
lenic. 

The Apollo, the Athene", and the Her£ appear to be- 
long especially to Hellenic traditions. But the two 
first carry marks, which can hardly be mistaken, of an 
affinity, probably dating from a very early period, to the 
Hebrew traditions, recorded in the sacred Scriptures. 

The Poseidon of Homer is manifestly Phoenician. 
This deity waives as it were his supremacy on coming 
into Greece, in deference to the paramount force of the 
religion of the major number, and to the ruling in- 
fluences. Yet the character and worship of Poseidon 
may occasionally in Greece, as well as elsewhere, have 
been preserved under the name of Zeus. 

These five are the five great deities of the Poems. 
But it may be convenient to consider first the mode 
which Homer has devised for dealing with the elder 
gods. 

It is in a far-distant perspective that he places the 
Elemental or Nature powers ; which are thus removed 
from inconvenient contact with the actual governors of 
the world, and yet are subjected to no indignity. 

At the head of these is Okeanos ; whom Homer re- 
gards as the source (not the father, that title being re- 
served for Zeus) of all the gods. He is not invested 
with anthropomorphic attributes, a circumstance which 
indicates the distinctness of the race which had wor- 
shipped him. But Homer, paying a marked respect to 
his dignity, does not' summon him to the great Olym- 
pian Assembly of the Twentieth Book, 1 where, if he 



i II. xx. 7. 



190 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



had appeared, he must have been second to Zeus. It 
is possible even that the relations of this deity to man- 
kind were pre-Pelasgic ; as Zeus appears to have been in 
the Pelasgian system, and Okeanos could hardly have 
been there except as its head. 

In no case is the Homeric treatment more artful, 
than in that of the sea or water god Nereus. He is 
completely invested with the anthropomorphic char- 
acter ; for he is blessed with an abundant progeny of 
daughters. But his place was wanted for Poseidon : 
he is therefore confined to the sea-deep ; and he is 
in no manner or degree an object of worship in the 
Poems. 

While the Olympian system generally is to be re- 
garded as alien to elemental worship, and as founded 
on a different basis, it is important to trace nevertheless 
such vestiges of the elder religion as are to be found 
among the Greeks of Homer. 

1. In the Pact of the Third Iliad, the original terms 
were 1 that the Greeks should offer a lamb to Zeus ; the 
Trojans two, the one black, the other white, to Gaia and 
Helios, the Earth and the Sun. This appears to draw 
the line pretty clearly between some leading ideas of 
the worship of the two countries ; which nevertheless 
had, as is plain, many points of contact. 

When we come to the actual Invocation, Agamemnon 
officiates on behalf of both parties. 2 Accordingly he 
first invokes Zeus (but as ruling from Ida) ; then the 
all-seeing, all-hearing Helios ; and then he inserts, be- 
fore Gaia, the Rivers ; and he adds the deities (without 
naming them) who dwell beneath, and who punish 
perjurers in the Future State, or Underworld. 



i II. iii. 103. 



2 II. iii. 276-280. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



191 



2. In the Nineteenth Iliad we have an oath and 
Invocation purely Greek ; 1 and on comparing it with 
the former we find 

a. That Zeus is invoked without any mention of Ida. 

b. The Earth is next named. 

c. The Sun is invoked without any special words of 
personification. 

d. The Erinues, strictly ethical personages, are 
named as the deities below, unnamed in the previous 
Invocation. 

e. The Rivers do not appear. 

3. We also have, in the Ninth Iliad, another impre- 
catory Invocation ; that of Althaia, mother of Mele- 
agros. She addresses herself to (a) the Earth, (6) 
A'idoneus, and (c) Persephone : and her prayer is 
heard, and evidently granted as well as heard, by the 
air-stalking Erinus. The offence here was not perjury, 
but the slaying of her brother by her son. 

We thus perceive, from the first Invocation, either 
that the Earth and Sun stood to the Trojans as Zeus 
did to the Greeks, or that, when all were to be ad- 
dressed, the Earth and Sun fell to the Trojans from 
some greater affinity to their creed. But when we 
come to an Invocation affecting the Greeks alone, in 
the Nineteenth Book, the Sun is less prominently 
named, and the purely ethical element is introduced 
in the Erinues, avengers of perjury in the nether 
world. 

In the mixed Invocation the Erinues are not named, 
but are evidently the personages glanced at as avengers 
beneath the earth and after death. 



i II. xix. 258-260. 



192 



JUVENTUS MUNPI. 



We also find it clearly established by these passages, 
that the Nature-gods in general were treated by Homer 
as subterranean: though this did not absolutely and 
invariably exclude them from the Olympian family. 
And the office generally assigned to them is not a 
share in the ordinary government of the world, but is 
the infliction of punishment, both for perjury and also 
for other offences, in a future state. 

Hence it is that Achilles, a lock of whose hair had 
been promised by his father Peleus to be dedicated to 
the River Spercheios on his return home, deposits such 
a lock, at the time when he knows he shall not return 
home at all, in the. hands of the dead Patroclos ; that 
his spirit may carry it to the River-god, in the Under- 
world. 1 Here we have the clearest evidence that the 
Underworld, into which Patroclos was about to find 
entrance, was the ordinary residence of the River- 
gods. 

Nor is this the only case of River-worship in the 
Poems. The Pulians in the Bpeian even sacrificed a 
bull to Alpheios, 2 when they reached his banks ; and 
Odysseus likewise invokes the unnamed River of 
Scherie, at whose mouth he touches the shore. 3 These 
two, it will be observed, were plainly acts of worship 
with reference to some immediate result, and implied 
the exercise by the Rivers respectively of some present 
prerogatives. On the other hand we may notice their 
strictly local character, as well as that of the act done 
by Achilles. 

To the great Olympian Assembly of the Twentieth 
Book, which is to prepare the way for a decisive issue 



i II. xxiii. 144-151. 



2 II. xi. 728. 



3 Od. v. 445. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



193 



to the war, Themis summons the Rivers (except old 
Okeanos) and the Nymphs who frequent or inhabit the 
groves and fountains. These latter, both here and 
elsewhere, are evidently conceived under the condi- 
tions of the human form. A like process had been 
begun with the Rivers ; because Poseidon 1 accom- 
plishes his purpose with Turo in the form of the River 
Enipeus. Others, too, of the Rivers have human sons. 
Nay, they even sate on the burnished chairs of the 
Olympian Hall. 2 

Nor let it be thought strange, that while the worship 
(except for imprecation) of the greater deities of the 
old Pelasgian system had been superseded, that of 
smaller ones had thus survived. For the Dii majores 
of that system, by reason of their very greatness, had 
no one exclusive residence. But the River-worship 
was strictly local ; and it is the nature of this local 
worship, in whatever age, and in connection with 
whatever creed, to take a deep hold, and live a tena- 
cious life. Of this there can be no stronger proof than 
the great number of temples recorded in Pausanias 
as having been erected in honor of deities, whose ex- 
istence is hardly traceable in the public and national 
religion of historic Greece. Just so it was that the 
heathen system, when it was slowly and reluctantly 
yielding its ground to Christianity, lingered long in 
the villages and remoter districts, and thus gave us, as 
if by caprice, the singular name of Paganism for the 
religion, which had blazed with such extraordinary 
splendor in the Forum of Rome, and on the Acropolis 
of Athens. 

i Od. xi. 241. 

la 



2 II. XX. 11. 



194 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



There is another form of relation between the older 
and the younger scheme. While the anthropomorphic 
spirit of the Olympian religion repels the counter- 
system of elemental worship, it nevertheless appro- 
priates its materials, and even exhibits occasionally 
traces of its form. Thus, while the air- or sky-god 
becomes Zeus, the rainbow becomes Iris : and, as the 
rainbow in nature belongs strictly and exclusively to 
the sky-region, so Iris remains in the closest adhe- 
rence to Zeus. She is his messenger, not the mes- 
senger of the gods in general ; and even when he sits 
on Ida, she is in attendance on him, and available 
for a mission. 1 And as we may suppose that Ida was 
the habitual resort of Zeus when the armies were on 
the field, we can thus understand, not only why it is Iris 
who informs the Trojans about the Greek array, 2 but 
how she is at hand to prompt Helen's going to the 
Wall, 3 and to take Aphrodite out of the turmoil, and 
drive her, in the chariot of Ares, to Olympos. 4 

In like manner, Her£ appears to be constructed 
out of the old traditions which treated the Earth as 
a divine power : Demeter from a like source : and 
Hephaistos from an elemental god of fire. 

If the local cultus thus survived in fact long after 
the central system had been eclipsed and superseded 
by one founded on ideas of greater vigor and eleva- 
tion, then Homer, who of course had to exercise his 
plastic powers as a poet upon traditions which he 
found ready to hand, could not wholly extinguish the 
representation of these minor nature-powers in his 
Olympian system. And the ultimate form of recon- 

i II. viii. 399. 2 II. ii. 786. 

3 II. iii. 121. 4 ii. v. 353-369. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



195 



ciliation for the two systems was not in the ejection 
of the minor powers, but in the establishment of their 
assumption of human form, and with it the presidency 
over the object in which they at first inhered, as the 
condition of enlistment, so to speak, in the popular 
religion. Such was the basis of compromise, so to call 
it, which secured to Rivers, Fountains, Hills, and 
Woods, in each case their proper place in the Olympian 
system. 

To obtain a right view of its nature, the Homeric 
mythology must be carefully severed, not only from 
the bygone schemes of Nature-worship, but likewise 
from (1) the Roman mythology, and (2) the mythol- 
ogy of classical Greece ; from this classical system 
even as we have it in the poets, and much more as we 
draw it from the later writers.- 

We then find that the Homeric formation consists 
of a Polity, framed on the human model, with a king, 
an aristocracy, and even a people or multitude ; and 
that its seat is on Olympos. The king is Zeus. The 
aristocracy consists of a number not precisely defined. 
Somewhere about eight or ten deities take actual part 
in the debates of Olympos. The ordinary meetings 
are strictly analogous to those of the fiovlrj or council 
of the Greek army. But, like that council, the Olym- 
pian court has its silent members : and as Hephaistos 
prepared for it twenty chairs 1 or thrones, we must 
suppose this to have been the approximate number of 
those who were entitled to attend. This is the body, 
of which the feastings are so gorgeously described ; 
and in it are, probably, included all the deities, who 



i II. xviii. 373. 



196 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



had obtained more than a narrowly local recognition 
in the Greece of Homer. 

But sometimes the gods meet in (dyogrj') their As- 
sembly. 1 Homer appears to use this phrase on occa- 
sions when a great resolution is about to be taken. 
The Assembly of the Fourth Book defeats the Pact of 
the Third, and brings the Greeks into the field against 
the Trojans during the isolation of Achilles. That 
of the Eighth is designed to insure the absence of their 
potent patrons from the field of battle. Greatest of 
all, the Assembly of the Twentieth Book is brought 
together by a wider summons, including Nymphs and 
Rivers. This Assembly removes the embargo, and by 
permitting the battle of the gods, forecasts the corre- 
sponding victory of the stronger party upon earth. 

In the members of the Olympian Court itself we 
discern every kind of heterogeneity. There seems to 
be scarcely a single definite feature that they possess 
in common: only we may assert that every one of 
them has a preternatural superiority to man in some 
one or more particulars, while a few approximate to 
divine perfections. 

They seem, indeed, in no case to be liable to total 
and final extinction. 2 Yet Ares, having fled from 
Diomed, declares, not only that he might have re- 
mained senseless under the blows of the warrior, but 
might have suffered (drjQov) indefinitely long, left 
among the slain. And the gods may be deposed from 
Olympos, as Zeus says he would have deposed Ares, 
if born from any other divine sire than himself. 

In the Fifteenth Iliad, Poseidon appears to be 



1 II. iv. 1 ; viii. 2 ; xx. 4. 



2 II. v. 901. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



197 



threatened with Tartaros, as the consequence of the 
formidable conflict between Zeus and himself, which 
had seemed so imminent. The gods beneath, says 
Zeus, who form the Court of Kronos, would have 
become right well acquainted with the battle. As 
those gods are wholly cut off from Olympian action, 
this could only have been, as it seems, if Zeus had 
placed Poseidon where he had already placed Kronos. 1 
Even Here and Athene^ may suffer wounds, from 
which ten whole years will not suffice for their 
recovery. 2 And if they had persisted in the second 
descent, then, smitten by the thunderbolt, they would 
not have been again admitted to Olympos. 3 

The same notion of right which binds men together, 
prevails among the gods, but may be set at nought by 
them. 4 The happiness of Olympian Immortals is 
liable to be impaired and disturbed by quarrels on 
account of their partialities to men this way or that, 
as the happiness of men would be disturbed. 5 The 
community of gods is no less emphatically humanized, 
than are the individuals. The relations of its mem- 
bers to one another are, however, but partially defined, 
and are subject to contingency. 

Hardly any two deities are of the same dignity ; 
and even when they discharge the same function, they 
do it under different conditions. Thus Athene^ and 
Ares are the deities of war. 6 Ar£s fights with his own 
hand against a mortal : his opponent Athen£ does not 
deign to enter into conflict herself ; she incites 7 the 

i II. xv. 221-228. 2 II. viii. 404. 3 II. viii. 455. 

4 II. v. 761. 5 II. i. 573-576 ; v. 383, 384, and 873, 874. 

6 II. v. 430. 1 II. v. 124. 



198 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



mind, drives 1 the chariot, but only against a god, and 
impels or diverts the weapon. 2 

While however Athene^ thus behaves in relation to 
Ar£s, we have no similar example in the action of the 
Poems, of matters carried to extremity in the upper 
rank of the Olympian Court. On the contrary, the 
highest deities of Homer are bound together by a law 
of mutual respect, even when they take opposite sides 
of a question or a quarrel, and they show the utmost 
anxiety to avoid carrying their differences to issue. 
After all, is it not a folly, they commonly say, to 
diminish our own happiness on account of beings so 
inferior to ourselves ? 

See the language of Zeus to Athene, II. viii. 39 ; 
Of Zeus about Poseidon, II. xv. 226-228; 
Of Apollo to Poseidon, II. xxi. 462-467 ; 
Of Here about Zeus, II. viii. 427-431 ; 
Of Athene about Poseidon, Od. xhi. 341-343 ; 
And, although Hermes is a god of lower stamp, of 
Hermes to Leto, II. xxi. 498. 

Again, with a great delicacy, Homer never allows 
any of the higher deities to be named to mortals as 
being in conflict one with another. Thus when 
Diomed ascribes to Apollo the escape of Hector, and 
makes an appeal for himself to divine aid, 3 he does 
not, as on other occasions (e.g. II. x. 284), name 
Athen£ as his protectress, but says, 

' If perchance I too may have a god for my ally.' 

So Poseidon, in the form of Calchas, urging on the two 
Aiantes, and referring to Hector as claiming to be the 



i II. v. 840. 



2 II. v. 290, 856. 



3 II. xi. 362-366. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



199 



son of Zeus, and as perhaps having his aid, 1 suggests 
that ' some one of the gods ' might help one of them 
to make an effectual resistance. In reply, the Oilean 
Ajax observes that the pretended Calchas is some one 
of the gods of Olympos. 2 Thus no deity is placed by 
name in opposition to Zeus. 

And thus it is contrived, that Poseidon shall retire 
from the field (II. xv. 218) before Apollo arrives there 
to renovate Hector (239). 

In the Seventeenth Book, when Athene* 3 appears, 
that she may give effect to the altered policy of Zeus, 
Apollo does not absolutely retire, but the agency of 
the two is so directed as to avoid collision. For when 
Athene^ has incited Menelaos, and Apollo then kindles 
Hector, the two warriors do not meet in fight. Once 
more, when Achilles (II. xx. 450) recognizes the fact 
that Apollo has carried off Hector, he expresses a hope 
that x)g dewv may aid him too. In a word, the greater 
gods of Homer never are brought into conflict, nor 
do they exhibit their differences within the. human 
sphere. 

In Book xx, Here consults Poseidon and Athene 
(v. 115) as to the mode of counteracting the agency 
of Apollo, who is accompanying iEneas against 
Achilles. 6 Let us,' she says, £ force him back : and 
then some one of us can go to attend Achilles ' (119- 
121). Poseidon, in his reply, is unwilling to bring 
gods into conflict, 4 unless Ares or Apollo should begin, 
or should hinder Achilles ' (132-143) in his work of 
havoc. 

And when, finally, Zeus exhibits the golden scales 



i Ii. xiii. 54-58. 



2 II. xiii. 68. 



3 II. xvii. 544. 



200 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



in the air, that which holds the fate of Hector sinks 
to Hades, and thereupon Apollo quits him. It is then 
only that Athene, who was at hand and ready (see 
v. 187), joins and accompanies Achilles. 1 

But this mutual respect is only one among many 
notes of difference, which separate the orders of deity 
in the Olympian Court. 

The Olympian personages of Homer may be divided 
into several classes, in several respects. 

Firstly. We may consider them as background and 
foreground personages. The background personages 
are little heard of, and scarcely affect the machinery 
of government for the Homeric world. Such are 
Demeter, Themis, Leto, Dione, Hebe ; such are the 
Muses, and the Charites or Graces ; independently of 
the Nature-powers, who are summoned to Olympos on 
great and special occasions, but who take no active 
part 411 superintending human affairs at large. 

Secondly. The foreground personages may be divided 
into those of higher and of lower power. 

Of higher power we have only Zeus, Here, Poseidon, 
Athen&, and Apollo. 

Thirdly. The Olympian deities may again be divided 
into two classes, of the higher and the lower rjdog, or 
moral tone, respectively. The three first divinities are 
of the lower, and the two last of the higher, in regard 
to all those matters which pertain to the morality and 
to the infirmity, or dxQcccla, of man. 

Zeus, in his Olympian personality, stands with the 
class to which Herd and Poseidon belong ; while, as 
the traditional representative of providence and the 



i II. xxii. 208-214. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



201 



Theistic idea, he ranks more justly with Athene* and 
Apollo. 

Of the class lower both in power, and in moral tone, 
we have Hephaistos, Ares, Hermes, Aphrodite. 

All, except the highest gods, in Homer may be said 
generally to be subject to the following limitations and 
liabilities : — 

1. They do not know what events take place among 
men, except by the common senses of sound or sight, 
and when favorably placed ; for example, when near 
at hand, or when sound is loud. 

2. They do not know what is in the mind, and must 
ask to be informed. 

3. They shriek or cry aloud from emotion. 

4. When they move, it is (a) by gradual progres- 
sion ; (b) with means of conveyance. 

5. They are liable to be hurt and wounded. 

6. Human warriors can contend against them. 

7. Their worship is peculiar to some races or places. 

8. They are even liable to disparagement in com- 
munications held by the higher gods with men. 

9. They have little or no command over outward 
nature and the elements. 

10. They do not habitually repair to Olympos. 1 

11. Their partialities and propensities are without 
system, policy, or governing mind. 

12. They neither have divine foreknowledge, nor, in 
many cases, have they prudence or forethought equal 
to the human. 

13. They are not able immediately to influence the 
human mind. 

1 Where, however, Hephaistos lived (II. xviii. 143-147) ; but per- 
haps for special reasons. 



202 



JUYENTUS MUNDI. 



The only deities who may be called absolutely free 
from all these limitations are Zeus, Athend, and 
Apollo. 

Even Her£ is subject to some of them : Poseidon to 
more. 

Not even those deities, who are omnipresent upon 
earth, and take cognizance of all human affairs, are 
precisely informed as to what takes place in the super- 
nal region ; for when Here sent Iris to Achilles, in the 
Eighteenth Iliad, 1 to urge him to appear before the 
contending armies, it was done without the knowledge 
either of Zeus or of any other deity. 

Certain special features, as we have seen, and shall 
further see, are traceable, most of all in the Athene* and 
Apollo of the Homeric Poems, but also in Zeus, and 
(more forcibly) in Leto and in Iris, as well as in one 
or two other Olympian personages : and these features, 
in the case of the two first-named deities particularly, 
impart to the pictures of them an. extraordinary eleva- 
tion and force, such as to distinguish them broadly 
from the delineations of other gods, in whom these par- 
ticular features are wanting. The features themselves 
are in the most marked correspondence with the He- 
braic traditions, as conveyed in the books of Holy Scrip- 
ture, and also as handed down in the auxiliary sacred 
learning of the Jews. But while it seems impossible to 
deny the correspondence without doing violence to facts, 
on the other hand we are not able to point out histori- 
cally the channel of communication through which 
these traditions were conveyed into Greece, and be- 
came operative in the formation of the Olympian 
scheme. 

i vv. 183-186. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



203 



At first sight we should be tempted to suppose that 
the Phoenician navigators offered the natural and prob- 
able explanation of any such phenomena. Because, 
on the one hand, we know, from the historic books of 
Scripture, that the Phoenicians were at an early date in 
habits of intercourse with the Jews ; while, on the 
other hand, they not only were in like habits with the 
Achaian Greeks of Homer, but also, as far as we can 
discern, no other nation had a sensible amount of inter- 
course with Greece, or if there were such, it passed 
under the Phoenician name. 

And again, there is one of the legends of Homer 
with reference to which the presumption arises with a 
peculiar force. 

Apart from any disposition to premature deduction 
or imaginative interpretation, it seems obvious to ob- 
serve upon the striking similarity between the legend 
of Bellerophon, solicited by the wife of Proitos, and 
that of Joseph, by the wife of Potiphar. 

And the great abundance of tales forming the outer 
circle of the Odyssey, which (it is hardly too much to 
say) can only have had a Phoenician origin, and which 
touch almost every point of the compass except that 
to the eastward of Phoenicia itself, suggests the likeli- 
hood that this enterprising people would not be desti- 
tute of reports from that quarter also. 

The name of Proitos, 1 appearing on one of the seven 
gates of Thebes, which mark its Phoenician re-founda- 
tion, supplies a positive link between the legend of 
Bellerophon and the source to which I am ascrib- 
ing it. 



1 Paus. p. 727. 



204 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



A second such link is supplied by the written char- 
acters, in which Proitos communicated with the King 
of Lycia respecting Bellerophon. The art of writ- 
ing, according to the later tradition, was brought by 
Phoenicians into Greece ; and the name of Proitos 
distinctly connects the text of Homer with that 
belief. 

Our finding the family of Bellerophon in close re- 
lations with Proitos tends, of itself, to induce a. belief 
in their ethnical connection. This presumption comes 
into clearer light when we observe that Bellerophon 
was an Aiolid. 

It must also be admitted that, in supposing any other 
channels than the Phoenician for the conveyance of 
these traditions, we should force them up to a very 
early point of time, namely, that of the separation of 
the Semitic, and the Japhetic or Aryan, branches of 
the human family. 

It is however admitted that the Olympian scheme 
has for its distinctive character, or differentia, the in- 
tense action of the anthropomorphic principle ; which 
pervades and moulds the whole, repelling, and as it 
were repudiating, on the one hand all abstract specu- 
lations about the Deity, on the other the worship of 
Nature-Powers and of the animal creation. It is also 
clear, that some of the Hebraic traditions were emi- 
nently calculated to develop the anthropomorphic prin- 
ciple. The promise or expectation of a Redeemer, or 
Deliverer, of man, who should be at once human and 
divine, laid a basis for the entire system, by annexing 
the glory of divine attributes to the corporeal form of 
man. And the seed thus supplied was vivified, so to 
speak, by the familiar belief in the intercourse of G-od 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



205 



with the patriarchs, which so readily adapts itself 
to, if indeed it does not require, the use of a form 
approaching at least to the human type. 

Every race had its own religious traditions. Each 
modified, or kept, or lost them, in obedience to its 
ruling tendencies. It does not seem strange that the 
tribe or tribes, whatever they were, which brought into 
Greek life and religion what proved to be their central 
principle, should have clung with a great tenacity to, 
and preserved far more faithfully than other races of 
a less fine composition, those traditions which were 
so well adapted to the effective development of their 
peculiar genius. 

Among the Hebrews, besides what has been en- 
shrined in the Sacred Scriptures, there was a stream 
of tradition 1 otherwise delivered and relating to the 
Messiah, which, though it nowhere impugns or even 
varies, yet vividly illustrates the written record. I 
subjoin some particulars. 

1. The Messiah was to be divine. 

2. He was conceived of as 4 the Glory of God ' in 
the feminine gender. 

3. The relation of His two natures was set forth in 
the figure of mother and daughter. 

4. He was to be the Logos, the Word or Wisdom of 
God. 

5. He was the Lord of Hosts — an idea which 
would naturally take form in some martial develop- 
ment. 

6. He was especially The Light. 

7. He was to be the Mediator, through whom the 
counsels of God take effect upon man. 

1 Studies, vol. ii. pp. 48-51. 



206 JUVENTUS MUNDI. 

8. He was to perform miracles. 

9. He was to conquer the Evil One, and to lib- 
erate the dead from the grave and from the power of 
hell. 

10. And, generally, the divine qualities were all to 
be reflected in the Messiah (conceived as masculine) 
or Shechinah (as feminine). 1 

We may probably regard the use of the feminine 
gender in these traditions as having been either (1) 
the most convenient mode of impersonating an ab- 
stract idea of the Wisdom of God, or (2) as suggested 
by the arrangements of the Egyptian, or other Eastern 
religions. 

This is not the place to discuss at large the origin of 
the numerous religions which have existed outside the 
pale of the Divine revelation. It was a favorite opin- 
ion with the Christian apologists, Eusebius and others, 
that the pagan deities represented deified men. 2 Oth- 
ers consider them to signify the powers of external 
nature personified. For others they are, in many 
cases, impersonations of human passions and propen- 
sities, reflected back from the mind of man. A fourth 
mode of interpretation would treat them as copies, 
distorted and depraved, of a primitive system of relig- 
ion given by God to man. The Apostle St. Paul speaks 
of them as devils ; 3 by which he may perhaps intend 
to convey that, under the names and in connection 
with the worship of those deities, the worst influences 
of the Evil One were at work. This would rather be 

1 Studies, vol. ii. pp. 51-53. Taken principally from Schottgen's 
Horse Hebraicse. 

2 See the Propaideia or Prseparatio Evangelica of Eusebius, passim. 

3 1 Cor. x. 20. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



207 



a subjective than an objective description ; and would 
rather convey an account of the practical working of 
a corrupted religion, than an explanation of its origin 
or its early course. As between the other four, it 
seems probable that they all, in various degrees and 
manners, entered into the composition of the later 
paganism, and also of the Homeric or Olympian sys- 
tem. That system, however, was profoundly adverse 
to mere Nature-worship ; while the care of departments 
or provinces of external nature were assigned to its 
leading personages. Such worship of natural objects 
or elemental powers, as prevailed in connection with 
it, was in general local or secondary. And the deifi- 
cation of heroes in the age of Homer was rare and 
merely titular. We do not find that any cult or sys- 
tem of devotion was attached to it. 

The preternatural machinery of the Homeric Poems, 
besides its other qualities, is singularly complex and 
comprehensive. Its complexity is doubtless due to the 
fact, that Homer had to represent and to harmonize 
the several varieties of religion, which had found their 
way into the country in company with immigrating 
races, families, or persons. Its comprehensiveness is 
owing to that anthropomorphic principle on which it is 
framed, and which borrowed from earth, and carried up 
to Olympos, the state, the family, and the individual, 
as they exist among men. 

The bold invention by which the gods take sides 
in the War of Troy, and decide the controversy by 
main force in heaven, before it can finally be brought 
to issue on the plain between the Achaian and Trojan 
armies, is not a flight of the imagination only. The 
partisanship of the respective deities, this way and 



208 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



that, is evidently dictated by sympathies of race. 
Neither the blood, nor yet the religion, of the two 
countries were wholly separate ; but differences of 
leaning and of color between them may readily be 
discerned upon a close examination. And again, 
the mode in which general rules are occasionally 
varied in the Poems, irresistibly suggests that there 
is a reason both for the rule and for the exceptions ; 
as, for example, in the care of Poseidon for iEneas 
the Trojan, and in his persecution of Odysseus the 
Greek. We may also discern the marks of subdivided 
attachments. The care of Athene^ is exercised chiefly 
on behalf first of Odysseus, next to him of Achilles, 
and next to him of Diomed. The care of Here is 
for the Pelopid family, and apparently for the Greeks 
as the people whom they lead. Irrespectively, then, 
of the manifold interest attaching to the Homeric 
mythology, both as a religion and as poetry, it is in 
truth a main key to the ethnography of the Poems, 
and even might on this account be taken as a point of 
departure in an investigation, which it influences from 
first to last. 

The personages of the Homeric Theotechny, under 
which name I include the whole of the supernatural 
beings, of whatever rank, introduced into the Poems, 
are so diversified in character, intellect, and power, 
that while they cannot be described under any one 
common form, it is difficult to divide them into classes 
with anything like precision. Into the following cate- 
gories, however, we may distribute them with a toler- 
able approach to accuracy. 

1. The Olympian deities ; recognized and actual 
governors, but with immensely different titles and 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



209 



prerogatives, either of the inner and Greek world, or 
of the outer world known more faintly and indirectly 
to the Greeks. 

2. The greater Nature-Powers, with Okeanos at their 
head, who had apparently been supreme in the prior or 
Pelasgian Theogony. 

3. The lesser Nature-Powers, who continued to hold 
their ground, at least in local influence. 

4. Minor deities of foreign tradition, neither nat- 
uralized nor acknowledged in Greece, as not being 
of sufficient significance to claim admission to 
Olympos. 

5. Rebellious powers. 

6. Ministers of Doom and Justice, real or reputed ; 
less than divinities in rank, but more closely associated 
with the moral order. 

7. Impersonated ideas connected with the objects of 
human desire and aversion, hope and fear. 

8. Translated, or deified, heroes. 

9. Races intermediate between gods and men. 
Again. Many elements of the Hebrew traditions 

recorded in the Holy Scriptures, or otherwise preserved 
among the Jews down to later times, appear in the 
Olympian Court of Homer. But they are not found 
in all the personages that compose the assemblage ; nor 
even in all those deities whom, from various kinds- of 
evidence in the Poems, we perceive to have been fully 
recognized as objects of the national worship. Further, 
in the characters where the features corresponding with 
Hebrew traditions mainly appear, there is a peculiar 
elevation of tone, and a remarkable degree of reverence 
is maintained towards them, so as to separate them, 
not indeed by an uniform, but commonly by a percep- 

14 



210 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



tible and even a broad line, from the remainder of the 
gods. 

Besides the idea of a Deity which in some sense 
is three in one, the traditions traceable in Homer, 
which appear to be drawn from the same source as 
those of Holy Scripture, are chiefly these : — (1) A 
Deliverer, conceived under the double form, first of the 
' seed of the woman ' — a being at once Divine and 
human ; secondly of the Logos, the Word or Wisdom 
of God. (2) Next, the woman whose seed this Re- 
deemer was to be. (3) Next, the rainbow considered 
as a means, or a sign, of communication between God 
and man. And finally the tradition of an Evil Being, 
together with his ministers, working under the double 
form described by Moloch in his speech, of 6 open war,' 
and of 4 wiles ;' as a rebel, and as a tempter. This 
last tradition is indeed shivered into fragments, such 
as the giants precipitated into Tartaros, and as At£ 
roaming on the earth ; with perhaps a portion of the 
idea lodged in Kronos, whose common and only de- 
scription in Homer is 4 Kronos of the crooked thought ' 
(ayxvloyirpjQ^) . The other four traditions appear to be 
represented in the persons of Apollo, Athene^ Leto, and 
Iris. Of course it by no means follows that they have 
no other origin than in these traditions, or that, as 
they stand in Homer, they represent such traditions 
and nothing else. Iris, for example, must evidently 
be considered as an impersonation of a Nature-Power. 
What seems to me undeniable is that, in the Poems of 
Homer, the traditions I have named are at the least 
copiously and richly embroidered upon the tissue, sup- 
plied by other accounts of the mythological persons 
I have named ; and that they give to those persons 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



211 



a distinctiveness of character and form, which upon 
a close and detailed view of the Olympian system, as 
it is unfolded in the Poems of Homer, cannot well be 
mistaken by a painstaking and unprejudiced observer. 
If, in the progress of time, and with the mutations 
which that system gradually underwent, the marks of 
correspondence with the Hebrew records became more 
faint, the fact even raises some presumption that, were 
we enabled to go yet further back, we should obtain 
yet fuller and clearer evidence of their identity of 
origin in certain respects. 

Even the highest conception of deity in Homer does 
not exclude the element of fraud. I will give an 
example. There can be no question that the prize of 
the loftiest, most free, and most constant and unvary- 
ing intelligence in the whole catalogue of Olympian 
deities must be given to Athend ; who, alone among 
them, is never ignorant of what it concerns her to 
know, never exposed to disrespect, never outwitted by 
an opponent, never disappointed of an end. But, in 
the great crisis of Hector and Achilles, when the in- 
trinsic superiority of the Greek hero makes him inde- 
pendent of any even more honorable aid, she descends 
to the mean and shameful artifice of assuming the form 
of his brother Deiphobos, whom he especially loved and 
trusted, to induce him to turn and meet his adversary. 1 
This arrangement is the more remarkable, because 
it is somewhat difficult to discern the motive for such 
an intervention, or to see why Achilles could not, with 
his extraordinary swiftness of foot, have overtaken 
Hector apart from any assistance whatever. Perhaps 



i II. xxii. 214-247. 



212 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



it was an artifice of the Poet to uplift the character of 
Hector, of course in order to glorify yet further the 
Greek hero, who was to overcome him. 

Those pure and lofty traditions, then, which we are 
justly wont to refer to a primitive revelation as their 
fountain-head, had already begun to be impaired. And 
it is only what we ought to expect, if we find that with 
the lapse of time they suffered further deterioration, 
and if the persons representing them gradually sunk 
nearer and nearer to the level of those other Olympian 
deities who had already in the time of Homer lost, or 
who perhaps never had possessed, any notes of the sub- 
lime conceptions which the Holy Scriptures, and in 
some degree the auxiliary traditions of the Hebrews, 
have handed down to us in the greatest purity, and 
which the peculiar genius that became dominant in 
the Greek religion had, for a time at least, been able 
to preserve, if not from all injurious contact, yet from 
anything like absolute immersion in the mire. The 
AthenS and Apollo of the Olympian system may be 
compared with the Child in the noble Ode of Words- 
worth ; about whom, in his infancy, Heaven is lying, 
who as boy and youth 

Yet by the vision splendid 
Is on his way attended ; 

but who in process of time parts from it altogether : 

At length the man perceives it die away, 
And fade into the light of common day. 1 

It is no part of the object of this work to institute 
a detailed comparison between the earliest and the 



1 Wordsworth's Ode on the Keco'lections of Childhood. 

/ 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



213 



later stages of the morality and religion of the heathen 
world ; but I shall now state summarily the results 
which such a comparison would, I think, reasonably 
suggest, so far as religion is concerned. 

Religion and race have ever run much together. 
We find in Homer the clear tokens of a composite 
people, and of a composite belief. With the lapse of 
time the edges and angles of ethnical differences are 
worn down. The nation and the creed settle down 
upon an acknowledged platform ; and the distinctive 
features, though they do not wholly vanish, take a 
form which it is difficult to trace back to their first 
origin. All formations, especially if complex, must be 
examined in their beginnings. The religion of classical 
and historic Greece is already an old religion. The 
Poems of Homer enable us to investigate its first in- 
ception. We can trace the very finger of the artist 
on the clay he moulded for his countrymen's behoof. 
But as the nation was compacted and consolidated, 
the component parts of the religion also settled down, 
and their specific differences, like colors running, lost 
all definite outline. 

This loss of distinctive notes in the Greek mythology 
was a deteriorating and not. an improving process. 
The gods of later times were not relieved from the 
stains which attach to them in Homer. Some legends, 
which with him appear in a beautiful and noble shape, 
became utterly abominable and base. While the level 
of the higher characters of his Theogony was reduced 
till it nearly reached that of the lower, the level of the 
lower was in no way raised. In the processes of change, 
nothing was given, all was taken away. 

But the grand distinction between the Homeric and 



214 



JTJVENTUS MUNDT. 



the later systems was this : that the earlier scheme 
was a real, though it was a corrupt, religion. It acted 
upon life. It menaced the excesses of power. It pre- 
scribed the duties of reverence to age and authority, 
of hospitality to the stranger, and of mercy to the 
poor. It had one and the same standing with refer- 
ence to all classes. It did not assign to deity that 
most ungodlike quality, respect of persons. But in 
after times, apart from its deeper moral stains, it be- 
came wholly severed from the cultured mind ; and 
subsisted mainly as the jest of philosophers and men 
of the world, the tool of priests and rulers, the bug- 
bear of the vulgar. 

Again, it may be noticed that the religion of Homer, 
subject to varying closeness of relation between dif- 
ferent places and particular deities, is, though not an 
uniform, yet an universal religion. 

The Poet evidently supposed that in some manner 
the Olympian gods governed not. the Greeks only, but 
all mankind. This perhaps is the reason why he has 
admitted into the Olympian family personages like 
Ares, Aphrodite, and the Sun, whom we cannot affirm 
to have been worshipped at the time in Greece ; the 
evidence being, indeed, averse to any such supposition. 
This element of truth in his conceptions of Deity is 
clearly exhibited by the banquets provided for his gods 
among the Aithiopes ; by the scene of the Iliad, in 
which Zeus turns his eyes over the country of the Hip- 
pemolgoi and the Abioi ; 1 and especially by this, that, 
in the wide range of the Voyage of Odysseus, though 
he comes within the special jurisdiction first of Posei- 



i II. xiii. 3-6. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



215 



don, and next of Helios, still there is always a power 
of supreme control lodged in the Olympian Assembly ; 
a power, by means of which his release from the island 
of Calypso is finally obtained. 

It seems as if his primitive spirit had been unable 
to embrace the conception, which in later times came 
into vogue, of different and unconnected deities ruling 
different portions of mankind ; and as if both his own 
and the prevailing religious sense required that, al- 
though the name and worship of many among them 
had originally come from, or even still belonged to, 
a foreign shore, yet they should, as far as their im- 
portance required him to take notice of them, be bound 
together into a supreme and organized unity. But, 
notwithstanding, within the bosom of this unity the 
character and associations of his own race, which, 
without doubt, he placed at the head of all mankind, 
were to be predominant. In this combination of ideas 
we find the basis, and the warrant, of his Olympian 
system. 

The collective action of the Olympian deities in the 
government of men is less infirm, more venerable, 
more divine, than their individual action. When they 
move together, the mere idiosyncrasies, in which they 
abound, appear to be in a great degree lost and absorbed. 
The co-operation of the three great Hellenizing deities 
in the War against Troy is, indeed, the efficient cause 
of the divine decision in favor of the Greeks. And 
this again is mythically referred to a vindictive senti- 
ment on the part of each of the men ; yet the decision 
is a righteous decision. And, speaking generally, while 
the individual members of the Olympian Court are 
swayed by hate, lust, and greed, they have not any 



216 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



objects which they can pursue in common for the grat- 
ification of these appetites or passions ; and thus is 
neutralized the personal bias which so frequently 
draws them off the line of moral obligation, and more 
free scope is given, in all their common action, to the 
exercise of the true governing office. 

It is somewhat singular that we have not, in the 
true Olympian religion, any clear instance of a married 
deity, except Zeus. Hephaistos is married to Aphro- 
dite only in the Phoenician, or rather perhaps Syrian, 
mythology of the Eighth Odyssey. In the Iliad he is 
but wooing Charis. 1 That Amphitrit£ is the wife of 
Poseidon is a purely gratuitous assumption, and is in 
every way improbable, since Amphitrite has no clear or 
definite impersonation. Helios and Perse had children ; 
but they are wholly within the Eastern mythology. 
The names of Aides and Persephon£ are commonly 
combined in such a way as would be consistent with, 
and as may even suggest, their being married. But 
this would scarcely harmonize with his general arrange- 
ments, if Demeter was the mother of Persephone^ and 
if Aidoneus 2 was an earthy Zeus. And Homer has 
carefully avoided using any words which would directly 
place them in this relation. Okeanos and Tethus, 
Kronos and Rhea, lie outside the Olympian scheme. 

If this observation be correct, the fact is probably 
to be accounted for in this way : Homer had no idea 
of a normal marriage without issue. Where there 
were none, it was a heaven-sent calamity. He could 
not, then, have divinities distributed in barren pairs. 
But to have provided them with families would have 



1 II. xviii. 382. 



2 See infra, Aidoneus. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



217 



placed him in difficulties, such as may sometimes be 
felt by royalty on earth, with respect to the means of 
providing for a numerous offspring. It would have 
been difficult to weave them into the stock of tradi- 
tions which supplied his raw material. Moreover, as 
between brothers and sisters, the Greek horror of in- 
cest perhaps would ill have allowed the general use of 
the idea of a matrimonial connection ; though Her£ 
was the sister as well as the wife of Zeus, and though 
this double relation was not at all foreign to such 
Eastern traditions 1 as he had received through the 
Phoenicians. Thus he was shut up on all sides to 
arranging his Olympus, as to its younger generation, 
in the form of the single though manifold family of 
Zeus. 

Again. Within the theological system of Homer, 
and as a kind of kernel to it, there lies a system which 
may be called one of deontology, or that which ought 
to be, and to be done. ' Will ' is the supreme element 
in the mythological action ; or, at the least, it is in 
practice co-ordinate with 6 ought,' and it seems to be 
in conduct the livelier principle of the two. But the 
idea conveyed in 4 ought ' has a separate sphere, and 
ministers of its own, to which even Olympian person- 
ages pay regard. Its laws are expressed sometimes in 
terms relating to destiny : most purely of all in mtig 
and in vs'pemg ; which may truly be said to reflect the 
moral sense of the gods, and which are never used by 
Homer to express a mere mental emotion of mankind. 
They may convey more or less the sense of an emotion, 
but it is an emotion always springing from and regu- 



i Od. x. 5-9. 



218 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



lated by a regard to the essential laws of right, to the 
themistes of heaven. A third form, in which the 
dictates of the moral law are expressed and enforced, 
is in the action of its mute but ever active ministers, 
the Erinues.'j 

These topics will be opened in their due order. I 
pass to another head. 

Homer informs us in the Eighteenth Iliad that 
Hephaistos was found by Thetis busy in finishing a 
set of twenty seats, 1 for the members of the Olympian 
Court to use in their assemblies. I have observed 
that, with some allowance for the vagueness common 
with the Poet in the use of figures, we may take this 
incident as indicating pretty closely what he meant to 
be understood as the number of the Hi majores, or 
personages qualified to attend at the Council (boule) 
of the gods. 

As to nearly the whole of them, there is no difficulty 
in drawing out the roll : — - 

I. The children of Kronos : — 



1. Zeus 1 

2. Poseidon i ^ 

3. A'ioloneus 

4. Here 

II. The secondary wives of Zeus : — 

1. Leto \ 

2. Demeter ( 3 

3. Dione } 




i II. xviii. 372-377. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



219 



III. The children of Zeus : — 

1. Athene 

2. Apollo 

3. Hephaistos 

4. Hermes ^ 

5. Artemis f 

6. Ares 

7. Persephone 

8. Aphrodite 

IV. Personages not classified, but performing 

Olympian offices : — 

1. Themis, the Summoner ) 

2. Iris, the Envoy V 3 

3. Hebe, the Cupbearer ) 

18 

Besides these eighteen we have 

1. Helios, the Sun, taking part in Olympian proceed- 
ings. 1 

2. Paieon, who appears to be ordinarily present there 
as Healer. 2 

Both these personages came to be absorbed in 
Apollo : but in Homer they are distinct from him : 
and, so far as the poet may have had a distinct 
intention as to number, these two have perhaps the 
best claim to the Nineteenth and Twentieth places. 

3. Another claim, making the Twenty-first, is that 
of Dionusos ; whose position, however, in Homer is 
faintly marked and somewhat equivocal. 3 



i Od. viii. 270, 302, and xii. 374-376. 
3 Infra, Chap. VIII. sect. Dionusos. 



2 II. v. 401, 899. 



220 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



On the whole, we ought perhaps to reject two other 
names. 

1. Eris, or Enuo, the sister and the paramour of 
Ares. 1 She grows up, and this as it seems habitually, 
from small to huge dimensions. She remains to wit- 
ness the battle of the Eleventh Iliad, while the other 
deities withdraw to their Olympian palaces respect- 
ively. 2 She is sent down to the camp at the beginning 
of the same Book, and shouts from the ship of Odys- 
seus. She is named, too, together with Pallas, 3 in 
contrast with the effeminate Aphrodite\ Yet, on the 
whole, she is probably no more than a vivid poetical 
impersonation. In conformity with this supposition, 
while Ares carries a spear as he leads the Trojans to 
the fight, she conducts, instead, another form yet 
more shadowy than her own, that of Kudoimos, or 
Tumult. 

2. Histie, who is Yesta, and one of the Di majores, 
in the Roman mythology, and who is also fully personi- 
fied in the post-Homeric poetry of the Greeks, can 
scarcely be considered as a person in the view of 
Homer. There are indeed invocations to her name, 4 
which signifies 4 the hearth,' in the Odyssey ; but in 
three cases out of the five it is combined with that of 
the table for guests. 

i II. iv. 441. 2 ii. X i. 3, 4, 73. s II. v. 333, 592. 

4 Od. xiv. 159 ; xvii. 156 ; xix. 304 ; xx. 231. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



The Divinities of Olympos. 

Section I. Zeus. 

Zeus presents to us a character more heterogeneous 
and less consistent than that of any other Homeric 
deity. 

He claims a strength superior to the united strength 
of all the gods ; 1 yet he admits that he would have 
some difficulty 2 in putting down Poseidon singlehand- 
ed ; and he was actually delivered by a giant 3 from 
fetters into which he had been, or was about to be, 
thrown by a combination of that god with Athend and 
Herd. 

In many points he inherits the traditions, and is 
formed upon the conception, of the One and Supreme 
God. Yet he was one of three brothers, who had 
parents preceding them : the three were born to equal 
honor: 4 lot alone decided their several domains. 
Seniority gives Zeus the first place : yet the filial tie 



i II. viii. 17-27. 
3 II. i. 399-406. 



2 H. xv. 228. 
4 II. xv. 209. 



222 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



had not prevented him from imprisoning his own father 
in perpetuity. He is alike the depository of high moral 
ideas, and of intense, as well as of debased, human 
attributes. He bears many different characters ; and 
no one of them is altogether consistent with the rest. 

There are five different capacities in which, in order 
to embrace the entire picture drawn by the Poet, he 
must be regarded. Four of them are Olympian : one 
appertains to an earlier theogonic scheme. 

1. Zeus is the meeting-point of the Pelasgic with 
the Olympian or Hellenic system of religion. 

2. He is the depository of the principal remnants of 
monotheistic and providential ideas. 

3. He is the sovereign lord of meteorological phe- 
nomena. 

4. He is the head of the Olympian Court. 

5. He is the most marked receptacle of all such 
earthly, sensual, and appetitive elements as, at the 
time of Homer, anthropophuism had obtruded into the 
sphere of deity. 

On the epithets and verbal ascriptions of Zeus, we 
may observe, 

1. That they much exceed in number and variety 
those of any other deity. 

2. That with few and special exceptions they are 
applied to him exclusively. 

3. That they divide themselves into classes accord- 
ing as they belong to him, 

a. In respect of national or special worship, as 
Dodonaios, Idaios, Pelasgicos, Olumpios. 

b. In respect of his chief place in the Hellenic theo- 
gony, as air- god : such as doreQOTtrit^g, vsyzlrjysQ&tjg, 
'Aelaivscpijg, reQTtMtQavvog, tglybovnog, evQvomjg. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



223 



c. In respect of his character as the Providence and 
Governor of mankind, and the defender of social and 
moral laws : such as dzwv vTtaxog %ai aqioiog, narijQ dv- 
Sqojv ts dear rs, (xr t risr?]g, ^eiviog, txettjotog : highest and 
best of gods, father of gods and men, the Zeus of 
counsel, the Zeus of the guest, the Zeus of the sup- 
pliant. 

Let us now proceed to this fivefold observation of 
the Homeric Zeus. 

1. The Pelasgian Zeus. 

At times, the Zeus of Homer appears to border upon 
the mere Nature-Power : as in the epithet /JiiTzezrjgj 
' falling from Zeus,' applied to rivers : in "Evdiog, 
meaning ' at noontide,' and recalling the ' sub dio, sub 
Jove,' of the Latins. Also the expressions, Aiog o^Qog, 
avyai, vicpddsg, (oqcci, the rain, rays, snow-flakes, hours or 
seasons of Zeus, may all be compared with analogous 
expressions applied to Demeter and to Hephaistos. 
We may consider all these as being, in their various 
shades, relics of the Pelasgian worship of Nature- 
Powers. 

We may in fact either consider the Pelasgian Zeus, 
and the Zeus of the anthropomorphic system, as one 
or as two. It is probable that two separate clusters 
of tradition may have belonged to the same name, and 
that in time they coalesced together, in obedience to 
the law of public feeling, combined with their respect- 
ive internal aptitudes. And this condition may have 
been the solution no less of a great ethnical than a 
great mythological question. 

According to the legend of Thetis, in the First Iliad, 
there was a time when Here, Poseidon, and Athen& 



224 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



combined to put him in bonds. He was saved from 
this peril by Thetis, who fetched Briareus, or Aigaion 
of the Hundred Hands, to his aid. This giant was 
stronger than his father Poseidon, and on his arrival 
the plan was abandoned. Of the three deities named, 
Here and Athene^ are eminently Hellenic, and Poseidon 
appears to be Phoenician. The meaning of the legend 
therefore probably is, that the supremacy of the old, 
and perhaps purely elemental, Zeus of the Pelasgians 
was endangered by the arrival of the Phoenician and 
Hellenic immigrants with their respective religious 
associations : but that an accommodation was after- 
wards effected, and a Zeus acknowledged, who suffi- 
ciently took into himself the Pelasgian element. 

The Zeus of Homer is the Pelasgic Zeus, and the 
Zeus of Dodona ; and he is also worshipped by the 
Helloi. 1 These Helloi appear to represent the Hellenic 
race in its pre-Hellenic form ; and the Pelasgian name, 
with that of Dodona, places the throne of Zeus within 
the shadows of the pre-Hellenic period. It is true that, 
in the Theogony of Homer* this deity has ancestors 
and antecessors : and he alone, of the family of gods 
proper to the Pelasgians, is carried over at once into 
the Hellenic and Olympian system. This may have 
been both because, as the god of air and light, he an- 
swered best among them to that more abstracted and 
less materialized conception of Deity which the Hel- 
lenic mind required ; and because there clustered 
around him whatever traditions of a supreme and 
single Being the world of human thought had either 
fashioned or retained. In any case it is plain that the 



1 II. xvi. 233-235. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



225 



Poet, having got rid of all claims of priority by relegat- 
ing the Nature-Powers to the Underworld, or to the 
sea-floor, or to the extremities of the earth, is thus 
enabled to leave his Zeus firmly grounded in authority 
as the senior god of the Olympian system. And this 
claim of seniority is the true basis of his supremacy. 
To this it is, and by no means to mere excess of force, 
that Poseidon defers in the Fifteenth Iliad, as to a 
claim profoundly rooted in that moral order, which 
even gods acknowledge and respect. 

It is at the stage where the Past, having been be- 
fore only cloud and mist, becomes for Homer that 
shaped tradition which occupied, relatively to his time, 
the place of History, that Zeus offers to the mind of 
the Greek hearer the earliest definite point upon 
which understanding and memory can fix, so that he 
can be chosen as, for practical purposes, the origin to 
which all things are to be traced up and referred. 

It seems likely that this priority of Zeus may lie at 
the root of his preference f or Troy : a state and people 
in which we discern the predominance of a mere Pelas- 
gian character, and where the royal family mounts to a 
greater antiquity than that of any properly Hellenic or 
Achaian race. 

2. The Divine Zeus. 

To Zeus as Providence belong both a number of sep- 
arate ascriptions, and a general position, which under- 
lies the whole action of the Iliad. The grandeur of his 
figure and attributes transcends every other composi- 
tion. He is identified, in perhaps an hundred places of 
the Poems, with the word theos, in its more abstracted 
signification as Providence, or the moral governor of 

15 



226 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



the world. He is the rapfyg TtoXsfjtow, the arbiter of 
war : and he exhibits in the sky, on great occasions, 
the scales in which are weighed contending fates. He 
is the source of governing authority, and he shows his 
displeasure when it is abused. 1 He is the distributor 
in general of good and evil among mortals ; for it is on 
his floor that the two caskets 2 stand, from which are 
dispensed the mixed and the unmixed lots of men. 
He has the care of the guest, the suppliant, and the 
poor ; and thus his name becomes the guarantee for 
three relations, which were and are fundamental to 
the condition of mankind, considered with reference to 
social existence. Indeed, in this character he is him- 
self a source of Destiny, as we find from the remark- 
able phrase z/t<v aha, the fate of, or proceeding from, 
Zeus. 

Zeus approximates to, and perhaps possesses, an 
ubiquitous or universal supremacy. Hellic and Pelas- 
gian, Idaian and Olympian, he leads the band of the 
Immortals to feast during an eleven days' absence on 
the sacrifices offered by the Aithiopes or Ethiopians, 
who occupied the whole southern line of the world of 
Homer : 3 and he likewise, in an interval of his cares 
respecting Troy, casts his eyes in the far north not 
only over Thracians and Mysians, but over Hippemol- 
goi and Abioi. 4 His name is likewise acknowledged 
in the border land of Scherie, and in the outer sphere 
where Poseidon rules : for, say the brother Cyclops to 
the brutal Poluphemos, ' Disease comes from the mighty 
Zeus, and cannot be escaped : pray however to thy fa- 
ther the lord Poseidon.' 5 From this passage we perceive 

i II. xvi. 387. 2 II. xxiv. 527. a Od. i. 23. 

4 II. xiii. 1-6. 5 Od. ix. 411. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



227 



that Zeus was not for Homer a mere name for Po- 
seidon in his own kingdom, as A'idoneus is called 4 the 
Zeus beneath.' 1 The meaning more nearly approaches 
to a recognition of the Providential character of Zeus, 
as contradistinguished from his Olympian capacity. In 
this larger conception his individual existence at times 
appears almost wholly to merge. 

Zeus, however, although no positive limits are affixed 
to his capacities of perception and knowledge, does not 
as a matter of course perceive all that is going on 
among mortals. By an expedient of some naivete, he 
turns his eyes away from Troy towards Thrace and the 
righteous nations of the North, when Poseidon is about 
to come into the field. This god, assuming a disguise, 
remains there long without being observed, although 
the sleep of Zeus has not yet come. 2 

And again, to save the body of Patroclos, Here 
sends Iris on a mission to Achilles, which is concealed 
from Zeus as well as from the other gods 3 (xQvfida Jiog 
akXfov re Omv^). 

After the Theomachy also, he inquires of Artemis 
who it was that had maltreated her. Yet he had seen, 
and had exulted in seeing, the gods as they engaged in 
conflict. 4 

Besides these physical limitations, Zeus is subject to 
deceit. He is entrapped by Here through the medium 
of his passion, 5 and is lulled into a sleep, in order that 
during his inaction his decree may be disobeyed. In 
like manner 6 that goddess had completely outwitted 
him at the time of the birth of Heracles, by obtaining 
a promise on behalf of a descendant of his who was to 

1 II. ix. 457. 2 II. xiii. 1-16, 352-356. 3 n. xviii. 165-169. 
4 II. xxi. 389, 508. 5 II. xiv. 352. 6 u. x i x . 97 seqq . 



228 



JUYENTUS MUNDI. 



be born on that day, and by then accelerating the birth 
of Eurustheus in Argos, and stopping that of Heracles 
in Thebes. 

On certain occasions, we find Zeus acting as supreme 
and single-handed, neither against nor with the Olym- 
pian assembly. The grandest of these is at the close 
of the Odyssey. 1 Athen£, stimulated by her sympa- 
thizing keenness, appears to have winked at the natural, 
but vengeful, disposition of Odysseus towards his un- 
grateful and rebellious subjects. Zeus, who had pre- 
viously counselled moderation, launches his thunder- 
bolt ; and it falls at the foot of Athene, who thereupon 
gives the required caution to the exasperated sover- 
eign. Peace immediately follows. 2 

He has also this marked and paramount distinction, 
that he never descends to earth to execute his own pur- 
poses, but in general sends other deities as his organs, 
to give effect to his will, or else operates himself from 
afar, by signs, or by positive exertions of the power 
which he possesses as god of air. 

Zeus, however, is not absolutely omnipresent; for 
his journey, and his consequent absence from Olym- 
pos, are described. 3 But, unlike the case of Poseidon, 
we have no detail, no succession in his movement. 
Again, unlike Poseidon, he hears prayer irrespective 
of the particular place or point from which it is offered. 

3, 4. The Olympian Zeus, and the Lord of Air. 

The chief agency of Zeus in the Poems is as head of 
the Olympian family and Court. 

In this character he is the governor of the air and 



i Od. xxiv. 481, 525-541, 546. . 2 Od. xxiv. 546. 

3 II. i. 420-425. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



229 



all its phenomena ; the eldest of the trine brotherhood, 
and the owner of the Aigis, which is the symbol of 
sovereign power, like the crown, or sword of state, in 
an European kingdom. To him the gods rise up at 
their meetings. Though he swears, as other deities 
do, in confirmation of his word, we have no details as 
to the form : but we know that the highest mode of 
conveying his will and word is by the nod peculiar to 
himself. 1 

Besides those offices in relation to the air, which are 
more capable of an elemental interpretation, he com- 
mands the clouds, the tempests, the winds, the thun- 
der and lightning, the years ; he impels the falling 
star, or launches the thunderbolt. 2 All signs in air 
belong to him, as does especially the rainbow, which he 
planted in the clouds. 3 Iris, accordingly, is his per- 
sonal messenger in the Olympian Court. And when 
any of the attributes belonging to the region of air are 
employed by other deities, it is in virtue of a special 
relation to him. These partners of his power appear 
to be, exclusively of the rest, Here as his wife ; with 
AthenS and Apollo, in virtue of moral and traditional 
relations with the Supreme Deity, belonging to them 
respectively. 

The arrangement of the trine brotherhood seems to 
bear peculiar marks of a traditional origin. For, be- 
sides the division of power between three, the mode is 
remarkable. The Greek ideas and practice were 
founded, more or less, on primogeniture. Yet it is by 
lot that Zeus receives the air, Poseidon the sea, Ai'do- 
neus the Underworld. This method of division is evi- 



1 II. i. 524-530. Compare Hebrews, vi. 13. 

2 Od. xii. 415-417 ; xxiv. 549. 



3 II. xi. 27. 



230 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



dently meant to save the principle of equality, which 
the Poet thus curiously interweaves with the supe- 
riority of Zeus. 

For, as the head of the Olympian Court, it is clear 
that Zeus is stronger than any single god. It is in 
doubt whether he is, as he boasts, stronger than the 
whole. We see that at a former period three were 
able to coerce him. Perhaps we are to understand 
this legend as referring to a period of crisis : the con- 
ditions of human life may enter into the problem, and 
his sovereignty may be meant to be understood as one 
which when once vindicated, became resistless, and. 
was thoroughly consolidated by time. His superiority, 
however, must in the last resort, like that of other 
governors, be maintained by main force, 1 when per- 
suasion or verbal command has failed. Nor could it be 
exercised over the great Poseidon without a struggle. 2 
Here and Athene, however, single or combined, he 
threatens freely ; and the first of these he liad once 
punished with severity. 3 

Of omnipotence, properly so called, Homer does not 
seem to have embraced the idea. To this height, in- 
deed, even the philosophy of the ancients never as- 
cended. But none of the epithets of Zeus go so far as 
to express it, even in forms which might be supposed 
figurative. 

The headship of Zeus, however, is established not 
only in superior force but, as has been shown, by 
special marks of respect, and by symbols of sover- 
eignty : it may be added, by the general deference of 
the gods. Other tokens are observable. There is no 



i II. xv. 164-167. 



2 II. xv. 228. 



3 II. xv. 18. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



231 



patronymic among the gods, except that of Zeus him- 
self. And further, in the Olympian system proper, 
there is no god born of any divine sire other than 
Zeus ; nor any god born of a goddess, except he be 
the father ; nor any god born of a human mother. 

Again, he is undisguisedly the arbiter among the 
gods. Here appeals to him on the conduct of Ares, 
and he permits his Queen to let loose Athene on the 
Trojans. 1 Ares, when wounded, carries his complaint 
to Zeus ; 2 and Artemis also sits on his knee and makes 
known to him her woes. 3 This office, as a kind of 
judgeship in appeal, is a great stay to the power of 
Zeus. 

This headship of Zeus in the Olympian polity is not 
merely ornamental ; it entails the weight of govern- 
ment. The careful reader of the Iliad will be struck 
by the resemblance between his position among the 
gods, and that of Agamemnon in the circle of his 
chieftains. As heralds upon earth are his messengers, 
so it is at his command that a messenger goes to sum- 
mon the Olympian assemblies : he commonly, 4 though 
not universally, 5 introduces the subject of discussion, 
and, so to speak, manages the debate. He also feels 
the burden of government over man, when the divine 
Assemblies are not in session. After the gorgeous 
scene of the banquet in the First Iliad, the other gods 
slept, but Zeus slept not; he had in his hands the 
charge of the Executive, and he summoned Dream to 
do his bidding. 6 

The idea, to which we give the name of responsi- 

1 II. r. 765. 2 ii. v . 872. 

3 II. xxi. 705. * II. iv. 7 ; viii. 41 ; Od. i. 32. 

5 II. xx. 13. 6 ii. ii. i_ 7> 



232 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



bility, is represented in Zeus, and in him only. Other 
gods appear in the movement of the Iliad with an in- 
termittent agency. But it is Zeus who is charged 
with the general conduct of affairs, with seeing that 
the government of the world is carried on. There is 
no better example of this, than in the Olympian As- 
sembly at the opening of the Odyssey. Odysseus is at 
the time detained by Calypso in the Island of Ogugie\ 
The care of Athene* does not reach to him, because he is 
in the Outer world, under the government, apparently, 
of Poseidon, his great enemy. Meanwhile, his sub- 
stance is wasted, and his wife tormented, by the dis- 
solute Suitors. All this exhibits a sad rent in the 
established terrestrial order. Consequently the gods 
in general are affected with compassion. 1 But it is the 
business of Zeus to introduce the subject to them, for 
their opinion and decree. 

At the same time we must observe the skill with 
which he manages the Assembly. He avoids placing 
himself in conflict with Poseidon by any hasty assump- 
tion of the initiative ; and only gives his sanction to 
the plan of the Return, when Athene has complained 
of the detention, and thrown the responsibility of this 
evil upon Zeus. 2 We may observe a like refinement 
in the Assembly of the Fourth Iliad. The real object 
of Zeus in that Assembly is to draw the Greeks into 
the field, which can only be done by bringing about a 
breach of the Pact of the Third Book. And this must 
be done by the Trojans, since the Achaians were 
keepers of their oaths. But his mode of action is to 
propose that the accommodation just effected shall 



i Od. i. 19. 



2 Od. i. 62, 76. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



233 



be made permanent, and that Troy shall continue to 
subsist. For he knows very well, that this will put 
the Hellenizing deities upon proposing a scheme for 
the renewal of the war, and thus that they will save 
him from giving offence to those of the Trojan 
party. 

It is not only in the individual characters and the 
family order, but also in the general form of the polity 
of Olympos, that we may trace the anthropomorphic 
spirit of the Homeric religion. That polity is more 
aristocratic than monarchical. It does not exclude the 
idea of coercion, even as applied to Zeus himself ; for 
he was put in chains by the united action of Here, 
Athene^ and Poseidon. 1 Upon the whole, notwith- 
standing the mutterings of Poseidon in the Fifteenth 
Iliad, the superiority of Zeus to any single deity is 
sufficiently established. But although he boasts, that he 
is able to overcome in mere force the whole Assembly, 2 
it is incontestable that the will which ultimately pre- 
vails is that of the body, and not of the individual who 
is its head. His effort 3 to obtain a more favorable 
solution entirely fails. Homer indeed has balanced 
the question with his usual adroitness ; for, as far as 
the comparatively narrow plot of the Iliad is concerned, 
Zeus effects his purpose of glorifying Achilles, by the 
temporary success of the Trojans whom he loved. 
But it is the Battle of the gods, and the decisive supe- 
riority of the Hellenizing deities, which foreshadows, 
and makes way for, the victory of Achilles over Hector. 
And, as regards the general issue of the War, it is 
evident that the preference of Zeus lies with the Tro- 



i II. i. 399-401. 



2 II. viii. 18-27. 



3 II. iy. 14-19. 



234 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



jans and not with the Greeks. It is then the prevailing 
sense of the Olympian Court, already represented to us 
in the Theomachy under the form of physical force, 
which determines the doom of Troy, and determines it 
in conformity with justice, but clearly against the bias, 
if not the outspoken will, of Zeus. 

5. Zeus the type of anthropomorphism. 

The framework of the Olympian system is in itself 
the most imposing form of development ever given to 
the principle of anthropomorphism ; that principle 
which, to define it briefly, casts the divine life into 
human forms. This is effected by Homer with refer- 
ence to all the main relations of life ; the State, the 
family, and the individual. The State is represented 
by the Olympian polity as a whole. The relations of 
the deities among themselves are all thrown into the 
form of the family. Perhaps it was the sheer necessity 
of the case, perhaps the fact that the stream of tradi- 
tion came from the* East, which carried with it the con- 
sequence that, while the Greek family was thoroughly 
normal, the family of the Greek gods was based upon 
polygamy, 1 and upon polygamy attended with what 
would among men be deemed a license yet more re- 
laxed. In truth, it is the domestic organization of 
Troy, rather than of Greece, which supplies the earthly 
original from which the family in Olympos is a copy ; 
although this is a feature accidental in reference to the 
main design. 

For, in Olympos, we have Zeus with Her£ as his 
principal wife ; with Leto, Dione, and perhaps De- 



i II. xxi. 499. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



235 



meter, as the secondary or subordinate wives. In the 
rear of these, came all the persons who were the sub- 
jects of his adulterous intrigues on earth. Here alone 
is the Queen, who by reflection attracts, and who 
exercises, though with a contracted power, the air- 
governing prerogatives of her husband. The other 
goddesses I have named are personages, differing in 
dignity, but agreeing in this, that they are mute and 
blind in reference to the governing office. 

While the Olympian Court, and Zeus as its head, 
present to our view the weight of political care, and 
are commonly seen working for good, the individual 
character of Zeus is of a far lower order than his public 
capacity would lead us to expect. Into this there 
enters almost as much of Falstaff, as of Lear into the 
character of Priam. The basis of it is radically Epi- 
curean. A profound attachment to ease and self-en- 
joyment is its first governing principle. Except for 
his pleasures, and indeed with a view to indulging in 
them, he never disturbs the established order ; and he 
resents in a high degree the fiery restlessness, as well 
as the jealousy, 1 of Here. The sacrificing man is the 
pious man : but the love of Zeus for such men appears 
to be closely associated with the animal enjoyment of 
the libation and the reek. 2 To avoid trouble, he acqui- 
esces in the death of Sarpedon, whom he singularly 
loves: he dreads to give offence to the goddess of 
Night ; 3 and he hesitates to grant the request of Thetis, 
notwithstanding the debt of gratitude he owes her. 
And generally he hates those gods who trouble him, 
and in proportion as they trouble him ; especially his 
son Ares. 4 

1 II. i. 562. 2 II. iv. 48, 49 ; xxiv. 69, 70. 

3 II. xiv. 261. * ii. v. 890. 



286 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



He is not, indeed, devoid of affections ; for he is 
moved by pity, now for Agamemnon or a Greek chief- 
tain, now for Priam ; 1 and he is wrung with genuine 
grief, as a father, for Sarpedon, over whom he even 
weeps tears of blood. 2 But he delights to sit on Garga- 
ros, and there to behold the bloody spectacle of the 
war ; he keenly longs to see the ships on fire ; he 
anticipates a lively pleasure from witnessing the very 
gods in conflict with one another. 3 Not only does he 
rejoice in the feast, but he glows with sexual passion, 
and he is subject to the power of Sleep, although that 
deity can only subdue him by working hard, and more- 
over somewhat at his peril, so that Here is obliged to 
bribe him with a high reward, promised under the 
sanction of an oath. 4 

In a word, Zeus is the masterpiece of the Homeric 
mythology, if we consider it with reference to that 
humanizing or anthropomorphic element, which gave to 
the religion of Greece its specific national character. 

Section II. Here. 

The Here of Homer is a deity of all others the most 
exclusively and intensely national. 

Being such, she is modelled strictly according to that 
anthropomorphic instinct which governed throughout 
the formation of the Olympian system. She is proud, 
passionate, sensual, jealous, vindictive ; but all these in 
strict subordination to the great end, which she pursues 
with unremitting perseverance, the glorification of the 



i II. xxiv. 174. 

3 II. viii. 47-52 ; xv. 600 ; xx. 23. 

4 II. xiv. 233, 236, 252, 268, 359. 



2 U. xvi. 459. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 237 

Greeks. She lias no personal or moral preferences, 
like the regard of Athen& for Odysseus, founded upon 
qualities of character. Zeus is obliged to conceal from 
her the concession which he has made to Thetis on be- 
half of her son, the greatest of Greek warriors, but to 
the detriment of the host at large. 1 She loves Achilles 
and Agamemnon with an equal love ; 2 that is, she loves 
them, not personally, but for their cause. 

Her£ is a deity much superior to Poseidon, as ex- 
hibiting higher intelligence, with more capacity of far- 
reaching design, and of the adaptation of means to an 
end ; matters these, in which we have no manifesta- 
tion of Poseidon's faculties, except in his purely ob- 
stinate persecution of Odysseus, for having used with 
energy the resources of self-defence against a monster. 3 
Still there is a total absence of moral elements from 
the character as it is presented to us. Angered at the 
lameness of her child Hephaistos, she desires to conceal 
his birth. 4 Zeus charges her with being ready to eat 
Priam and his children raw. 5 She borrows the kestos 
of Aphrodite, and entices Zeus in a scene where sen- 
suality is freely used, though as the instrument of a 
deeply laid and artful scheme. 6 The motive assigned 
for her hostility to Troy, is the insult she had suffered 
by the adverse judgment of Paris. 7 

In the Odyssey, she may be said for practical pur- 
poses entirely to disappear. She is mentioned but 
seven times in the whole poem : thrice, quite incident- 
ally, in a formula where Zeus is called the loud-thun- 
dering husband of Her£, and is himself the true subject 

i II. i. 545-550. 2 II. i. 196. 3 Od. i. 20. 

4 II. xyiii. 396. 5 II. iv. 34-36. 6 n. x i v . 190. 

" II. xxiv. 27. 



238 JUVENTUS MUNDI. 

of the passage ; once as the mother of Heb£ ; and 
thrice in legend or narrative extraneous to the subject 
of the poem. Nor is this unnatural. For, in the do- 
mestic part of it, there is no question of the Greek 
nationality : while amidst the Phoenician and Eastern 
associations of the Outer Geography, a conception so 
strictly Hellenic could have no part to play. 

Though the power of Her£ is immense, yet she is 
not surrounded with that reverence which the Poet 
always maintains towards Athene* and Apollo. She is 
not exempted from the touch of defeat and dishonor. 

She was subjected to ignominious punishment by 
Zeus, who suspended her with her hands in chains, and 
witli anvils hanging from her feet. 1 And, in the course 
of her long feud with Heracles, that hero wounded her 
with a three-pronged arrow in the right breast, and 
caused her to suffer intolerable pain. 2 

She alone among the deities is called Argeian Her£, 
as Helen is called Argeian Helen, In both instances, 
the epithet appears to be founded on the special rela- 
tion between the person to whom it is applied, and 
the head-quarter of Greek power, especially as that 
power was associated with the Argeian name, and 
therefore probably with the period of the Perseids. This 
connection subsisted in Argolis throughout the his- 
toric period. In the Iliad, Her£ is said to regard the 
Greeks as her children. 3 . She collected the armament 
against Troy. 4 She carried Agamemnon safely back 
to Greece. 5 She conducted Jason and the Argo 
through the terrible rocks, 6 the Planctai, afterwards 
Sumplegades. She hates Heracles, apparently because 

i II. xv. 18-21. 2 ii. v. 392. 3 II. xviii. 858. 

4 II. iv. 24-29. 5 Od. iv. 513. 6 Od. xii. 72. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



239 



he is in antagonism to the Perseid dynasty. 1 It can 
hardly be from conjugal jealousy, since Jupiter recounts 
his conquests in addressing her on mount Ida. In a 
word, the vigor and activity of her partisanship are 
such, as to make the more dignified conduct of Athene* 
seem almost tame by comparison. 

Her rank in Olympos is among the highest: she 
must be supposed to sit by Zeus on one side, as we 
are told Athene did on the other. 2 The gods rise 
from their seats to her as well as to Zeus, when she 
comes among them. 3 At times, she acts immediately 
on the thoughts of man ; as when she prompts Achilles 
to call the Assembly of the First Book, in order to 
stay the plague ; 4 or impels Agamemnon to stay the 
victorious course of Hector. 5 At other times, Athene^ 
is content to be her agent ; as when, in the debate with 
Agamemnon, she stays the wrath of Achilles. 6 But by 
way of counterpoise, when the two goddesses are about 
to descend together from heaven, it is Herd who har- 
nesses the chariot, and plays in it the inferior part of 
driver, while Athen£ bears the Aigis. 7 The promise 
of her aid against Poseidon greatly relieves the mind 
of Zeus. 8 

She assumes, like the other higher deities, the human 
form ; 9 and exhibits an extraordinary power over na- 
ture, as if entitled, in virtue of her wifehood, to exer- 
cise in a manner the attributes of Zeus. Iris is her 
messenger as well as his. 10 Not only does she order 

i II. xix. 130-133. 2 ii. xx i v . ioo. 3 n. xv . 8 5. 

4 II. i. 55. 5 II. viii. 218. 

6 II. i. 194-196 : cf. ii. 156 ; v. 711 ; viii. 331. 7 II. v. 745-748. 

8 II. xv. 49-52. 9 H. v. 784-792. i« II. xviii. 168. 



240 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



the Winds, 1 but she sends the sun, 2 in spite of his 
reluctance, to his setting. When, indignant at the 
boast of Hector, she rocks upon her throne, 3 Olympos 
shakes beneath her, as it did under the nod of Zeus. 
She endows the horses of Achilles with a voice. 4 And, 
conjointly with Athene^, she thunders in honor of the 
crowning of Agamemnon. 5 

We learn from a speech of Phoenix, that, together 
with Athene, she can confer valor. The daughters of 
Pandareus she endows both with beauty and with 
sense, while Athene and Aphrodite provide them with 
industrial skill and bodily food respectively, and Arte- 
mis bestows upon them stature. 6 

Here takes part, with Athen£ and Poseidon, in the 
great rebellion against Zeus, which all but effected his 
deposition. She had also been personally favored with 
a special protection, at the time when Zeus himself 
deposed his father Kronos, and thrust him into the 
Underworld. 

Of these two myths, the latter seems to suggest its 
own interpretation. Its scene is fixed in the midst of 
the great Theogonic crisis, at the point of the transi- 
tion from the Pelasgian to the Hellenic or Olympian 
system. That was a moment of danger to her, but we 
read of no such danger to Poseidon. From this we 
may naturally infer that Poseidon had no concern at 
all with the Pelasgian system, and was an importation 
from a source altogether distinct. Her£, however, had 
a counterpart below, with which she might readily 
have been confounded. In that superseded system we 

1 This seems the natural construction of Od. iv. 513, and xii. 69-72. 

2 II. xviii. 239. 3 II. viii. 199. 4 II. xix. 407. 
5 II. xi. 45. 6 Od. xx. 68-72. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



241 



find a rata, or Earth, who, with other Nature-Powers, 
inhabits, and is invoked in, the Underworld. Rescued 
from that danger, and set high in Olympos, she stands 
in marked opposition, as an Hellenic goddess, to the 
older and coarser conception of the same idea, with 
which she is in direct competition. This will account 
for the attitude she holds in the Poems. For here she 
is not only Hellenic, but she is nothing else ; and the 
principle and groundwork of her Hellenism seem to be 
an intense untiring hatred of what is Pelasgian by race 
and association, just as if she were the preferred rival 
of an old Pelasgian deity ; as if she had the very root 
of her being in a strong recoil from the superseded 
Nature-Power, into which she might relapse, if Hel- 
lenism were ever swallowed up by a victorious return 
of the Pelasgian worship. Born of the Hellenic reac- 
tion, its life and hers were bound up together. 

Hence too, in all likelihood, we are to account for 
her place in the legend of the War in heaven. Zeus, 
like Janus, has two faces. When he deposes Kronos, 
he shows us his Hellenic, or Hellic, face. But this 
rebellion is a rebellion of deities, all of them having 
the most marked Hellenic sympathies, which evidently 
run against him in this legend, as the head of the old 
Pelasgian order. 

The functional attribute, specially entrusted to Here 
in her Olympian character, appears to be only that of 
regulating birth, through the medium of the Eilithuiai. 
This appears to be an ascription derived from the 
original character of the all-producing earth. And 
the anthropomorphic spirit of the Olympian religion 
is well illustrated by the fact that Homer cuts her off 
from all other production, both animal and vegetable, 

16 



242 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



but leaves to her only the bringing of man to birth. 
Human birth bears to Here the same relation as birth 
generally to Gaia. 

Though the Eilithuiai are mentioned as under the 
control of Here, they were objects of worship ; for the 
pseud-Odysseus mentions the case of Eilithuie at Am- 
nisos in Crete. 1 

On the whole, then, it seems likely that Here, with 
a name representing "Ega, or the earth, is treated by 
Homer with a transformation suited to the anthropo- 
morphic and personifying spirit of the Olympian re- 
ligion ; divorced, as to her personality, from Gaia, 
much as Poseidon is held apart from Nereus, and 
standing towards Gaia as soul to body: the body 
taking its place with the old elemental deities of the 
Pelasgians in the Underworld, the soul rising to higher 
offices. Here, thus detached from gross matter, carries 
off with her, as to man alone, the great prerogative of 
earth, that she is the all-feeding and all-bearing : the 
rQci(p£Q?j, the TtolvcpoQpog, the cpegsg^iog. Accordingly, 
Here becomes, or remains rather than becomes, the 
great mother. She is the wife of Zeus, father of gods 
and men, and she holds among his wives and concu- 
bines the queenly prerogative, like Hecuba in Troy; 
the mother in heaven of some of his children, as Hebe, 
Ares, and Hephaistos ; and, with the Eilithuiai for her 
ministers, the goddess of all motherhood on earth. 2 

ThisJast, indeed, is her only specialty. Those other 
and high prerogatives, which invest her with command 
over Nature, and with the power of direct action on 
the mind, probably accrue to her as the consort of 



i Od. xix. 188. 



2 II. xix. 119. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



243 



Zeus, and are therefore not her original gifts, but the 
reflection of his glory. 

We have, perhaps, in the Theomachy, at least one 
vestige of the prerogative of Here as a Nature-Power. 
It is she who excites Hephaistos against the river 
Xanthos ; 1 and again, the River, parched by fire, makes 
his appeal to her to relieve him from suffering, with 
an engagement which, he takes to aid Troy no more, 
not even in its last necessity. Here accedes to his 
prayer, and checks the action of Hephaistos, who 
thereupon desists. 2 It seems as if the ground for 
choosing Here to interpose on this occasion lay in the 
relation between rivers and the Earth along which 
they trace their course. This is the only act of a defi- 
nite nature, with a sensible result, performed by Here 
within the limits of Troas, a fact which is again in 
accordance with the construction I have given it, and 
the apparent bias of the Troic religion towards Nature- 
worship. 

Section III. Poseidon. 

The most striking feature of the Homeric Poseidon, 
or rather Poseidaon, is vast force combined with a total 
absence of the higher elements of deity, whether intel- 
lectual or.moral. A persistent vindictiveness, indeed, 
we trace as the groundwork of his entire action in 
both the Poems : he hates the Trojans, for the offence 
of Laomedon ; he hates Odysseus, because, in the 
strictest self-defence, he had blinded Poluphemos. By 
no worthy word or act is he marked in any part either 



1 II. xxi. 328-330. 



2 lb. 367-381. 



244 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



of Iliad or Odyssey, unless it be by some natural affec- 
tion for his descendants, whether they be the youthful 
warriors of the house of Actor, 1 or the savage, cruel, 
atheistic Cyclop. 

One of the three sons of Kronos and Rhea, he comes 
next to Zeus in order of birth. 2 He claims an equal- 
ity 3 of rank ; and avers, that the distribution of sov- 
ereignties among the three brothers was made only by 
lot. More than indirectly, he asserts equality, as well 
as independence. When admonished by Iris that he 
is junior to Zeus, he acknowledges that there is force 
in the plea, and he withdraws from the plain of battle 
as he had been bid ; but he reserves a right of resent- 
ment, in case Zeus shall not fulfil the decree against 
Troy. Zeus on his part is delighted at the news ; and 
observes, that it would have cost much labor to coerce 
him. 4 Again, it is plain that, in the conspiracies 
against Zeus, he was the acting partner. For it is the 
superiority of his son to him, that frustrates the design 
of the whole party ; 5 and when Here attempts to revive 
the scheme, he pleads in reply, not their collective in- 
feriority, but his own singly, 6 as if he thought that it 
was, in point of mere force, well-nigh all they would 
have to rely on. 

Apollo is restrained, in the Theomachy, by a senti- 
ment of respect, from coming to blows with Poseidon, 
as his paternal uncle. 7 And a sentiment precisely 
similar prevents Athene in the Odyssey from comfort- 
ing Odysseus by her visible presence, even at her own 
sanctuary in Scherie. 8 

i II. xi. 749-751. 2 u. x i v . 174-217. 3 rb. 186-209. 

4 II. xiy. 220-235. 5 ii. i. 404. 6 ft. y m 211. . 

7 II. xxi. 468. 8 Qd. vi. 329 ; xiii. 341. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



245 



Though god of the sea, he is not, so to speak, the 
Sea-god, or the Water-god. He has in him nothing of 
an elemental deity. He is not placed in as near a 
relation to water as Zeus is to air, by the epithet 
JukstTjg, and the phrase Ahg o^gog. 1 These very phrases 
show us that he was not, in Homer's view, the god of 
moisture, or even of water, generally. The attempts 
to derive his name from a common root with noaig, 
c drink,' or TtorafAog, 6 a river,' would therefore be insuffi- 
cient or inappropriate, even if they were not, as they 
are, somewhat equivocal. It is remarkable that, while 
Poseidon supplied a sea-deluge as his contribution 
towards effacing the Greek trench, it was Apollo who 
turned upon it the mouths of all the rivers that de- 
scend from Ida; 2 which, when Poseidon had accom- 
plished his labor, he in turn sent back again to their 
proper channels. 

Nereus, the true Sea-god of Homer, gave to the 
element of water that name of nero, in the popular 
speech of the Greeks, which it still retains. 3 He ever 
dwells in the depths of the sea, as if he belonged to 
them, and as if they supplied his atmosphere. But 
Poseidon has a palace there near Aigai, where his 
chariot was kept, where the Poet seems to imply that 
he resided. 4 Yet not exclusively ; for he appears at 
the Olympian Court, on the plain of Troy, on the 
hill-tops of Samothrace, 5 or on the Solyman 6 moun- 
tains ; and he singly visits the Ethiopians, to partake 

1 Aiinerrig — fallen from Zeus. Acbg ofifipog = Zeus-rain. 

2 II. xii. 17-35. 

3 Compare the adj. neros, wet, in the late Greek of Phryniclms, the 
grammarian, a.d. 180. 

* II. xiii. 15-22 ; xv. 219. Od. v. 381. 

5 II. xiii. 11. 6 Od. v. 283. 



246 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



of the sacrifices they offered him. 1 This reference to 
his being worshipped in a distant quarter is the second 
sign we have seen of his foreign origin ; the first was 
the want of definiteness in his position of inferiority 
relatively to Zeus, as though he had been, elsewhere, 
without a superior. 

So again there appears to be in the Outer or Phoe- 
nician system an elemental sea-god, Phorcus, who is 
called ruler of the sea, and after whom a harbor in 
Ithaca is named. 2 

Prayer appears only to be addressed to him within 
the Greek world, in the neighborhood of the sea, as by 
the Envoys in the Ninth Iliad ; 3 and by his own de- 
scendants, as Nestor in the Third Odyssey, who like- 
wise worships by the shore. 4 He can assume the form 
of any man ; can blunt the point of a spear ; can carry 
off his friends, or envelop his opponents in vapor. 5 
He can inspire vigor into heroes ; not immediately, 
however, but by a stroke of his . staff. 6 Direct action 
on the mind appears to be beyond his range. The 
storms of the Poems, in the Greek or inner world, are 
not raised by Poseidon. Probably he had not the power 
to raise a storm, though he can break, as the sea does, 
fragments from the rocks of the coast. 7 Storms seem 
to have been regarded as belonging to the province of 
the air-god. They are imputed to him in a passage of 
the Twenty-fourth Odyssey ; 8 but it would not be alto- 
gether safe, perhaps, to rely on that Book, in a case 
where it seems to vary from the usual order of the 
Poems. 

l Od. i. 22, 25. 2 Od. i. 72 ; xiii. 96. 3 II. ix. 183. 

4 Od. iii. 5. Cf. II. xi. 728. 

5 II. xiii. 43, 215 ; xiv. 135 ; xiii. 562 ; xi. 752 ; xx. 321-329. 

6 II. xiii. 59. 7 Od. iv. 506. 8 Od. xxiv. 110. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



247 



If, however, Poseidon was less than the absolute lord 
of water, he was also more. 

1. His possession of the Trident (triaina) could 
hardly be due to a purely maritime sovereignty. 

2. His relation to the horse, which is very per- 
ceptible, though not of primary rank, in Homer, 1 
and which became almost paramount in the later age, 
cannot be adequately explained by any comparison 
between that animal and the ship, or the wave. 

3. Poseidon is the building-god. 

4. Poseidon stands in close relation to the giants 
and other rebellious personages, who troubled both gods 
and men. 

The existence of these associations for Poseidon, inas- 
much as they cannot be explained by virtue of his place 
in the Olympian system, again urges us to look for the 
signs of his origin abroad. The key to the inquiry is 
to be found in the Outer world of the Odyssey. For 

1. It is plain that the materials of the narrative, so 
far as the scene of the poem is laid in that Outer world, 
must have been derived by the Poet from the Phoeni- 
cians, who alone frequented the waters beyond the 
iEgean and the Greek coasts. 

2. In the western portion of the Outer sphere, Zeus 
practically disappears from the governing office, and 
Poseidon becomes the supreme ruler. 

We have seen that the subordination of Poseidon to 
Zeus rested on juniority. If Zeus were the chief god 
of the Pelasgian worship, and Poseidon came in with 
the Phoenicians, this poetical arrangement is suitably 
explained ; and it exhibits a skilful adaptation to the 



i II. xxiii. 277, 306, 584. 



248 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



conditions under which the Olympian system was con- 
structed. His rebellion against Zeus, in concert with 
Here and Athene, appears to show that, as new immi- 
grants arrived in Greece, bearing with them their own 
religion, the older system was for a time brought into 
question and endangered as a whole. The delivery of 
Zeus from this rebellion will be considered in connec- 
tion with the goddess Thetis. 1 

The Greek legends relating to Poseidon are just such 
as we might expect with reference to the god of a nau- 
tical people, touching at many points about the coast of 
Greece. He contends with Helios for Corinth, with 
Athene for Troizen and Athens, with Here for Argolis, 
with Zeus for iEgina, with Dionusos for Naxos. Even 
in the Greece of Homer we find spots specially conse- 
crated to him in Bceotia, in Euboea, and in Aigialos. 

Let us now turn to the Yoyage of Odysseus in the 
Outer world; which begins with the Lotos-eaters, and 
ends with the Phaiakes of Corfu. Mure 2 suggests that 
their name is a parody of the name Phoinikes : Homer 
paints them as a wealthy, unwarlike people, singularly 
expert in navigation. This apparent incongruity falls 
in with the case of Corfu, if it was then inhabited, as 
it has been in later times, by a stationary, gentle, 
indolent peasantry, and at the same time held by a 
dominant settlement or colony of foreigners, ruling 
it through maritime power. Mure cites Phaik as a 
Semitic word for 4 magnificent,' and Scher, as meaning 
4 an emporium.' 

In this Phoenician or Outer world, Athene, who had 
constantly tended Odysseus while in Troas, and who 



1 Infra, sect. xxi. 



2 Lit. Hist, of Greece, vol. i. p. 510. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



249 



resumes the regular charge of hiin in Ithaca, systemati- 
cally abstains from helping him ; and wholly disappears 
until Poseidon has, in the Fifth Odyssey, voluntarily 
receded from the scene. 1 She declares that respect to 
her uncle was the motive for her own disappearance. 2 
The presumption then is that this Outer world was a 
sphere in some way so specially his own, that Athene, 
whose power and prerogatives in Homer are so ex- 
tremely lofty, was unwilling to offer him any opposi- 
tion there. 

Accordingly, we have direct evidence that, in relation 
to the Outer world, Poseidon exercised prerogatives 
which seem not to have belonged to him within the 
Greek sphere. He raised the storm which wrecked 
the raft of Odysseus ; gathering the clouds, which was 
the special function of Zeus, and causing the winds to 
blow. 3 

Moreover, in the lay of Ares and Aphrodite, it is evi- 
dently Poseidon who presides in the Assembly of the 
gods, and who consequently negotiates with Hephais- 
tos for the relief of Ares from the net of steel. And 
just as, at the beginning of the Second Iliad, the other 
gods were sleeping, but Zeus 4 (who was responsible) 
slept not, so here, while the other deities were laugh- 
ing, Poseidon did not laugh ; 5 as we may suppose, for 
the same reason. And while, on ordinary occasions, 
we are always told that the gods assembled in the 
XaXxopark 8w of Zeus, here the words 4 of Zeus ' are 
omitted. 6 

Undoubtedly the name of Zeus appears from time to 
time in those Books of the Odyssey which describe the 



i Od. y. 380. 

4 II. ii. 1. 



2 Od. xiii. 341. 
5 Od. yiii. 344. 



3 Od. v. 291. 
6 Od. viii. 321. 



250 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



wanderings of Odysseus ; but his governing office dis- 
appears until, in the end of the Twelfth Book, he acts 
at the instance of Helios (the Sun), and on behalf of 
the Olympian Court. It is not the abstract, but the 
working supremacy of Poseidon, which the Poem seems 
to show. At the same time, the question might be 
raised whether, as in the later and extraneous tradi- 
tion the name Zeus was often united with that of 
Poseidon (as much as to say 4 Zeus the supreme deity, 
in the form and under the name of Poseidon'), so 
here the word may not improbably have the general 
force of 6 god,' rather than the personal meaning of a 
particular god. Even in Homer, A'fdoneus is called the 
Zeus of the Underworld ; and so Poseidon may be the 
Zeus of the sea and the sea-regions. And it is very 
notable that in Od. v. 303-305, Odysseus ascribes to 
Zeus that very storm, which we are expressly told that 
Poseidon had raised. 

We have therefore very strong indications from the 
text of Homer that Poseidon was the god, or the chief- 
god, of the Phoinikes ; and if he was, then, upon their 
arrival in Greece, he could only be incorporated into 
the Greek system by some such method as Homer has 
adopted, in giving him at once a parity and a disparity 
with Zeus. 

Thus the Outer geography affords us the strongest 
evidence of the Phoenician origin of Poseidon. It shows 
us more than this, as will be seen when we treat of the 
position of Helios in Homer. 

The view now taken is in harmony with the evi- 
dence supplied from other sources respecting Poseidon. 
Herodotus, deriving the names of the other Greek gods 
from Egypt, excepts Poseidon. History shows abun- 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



251 



dantly the prevalence of Poseidonian worship among 
the Phoenicians and their colonial progeny. Diodorus 1 
says an altar to Poseidon was built at the northern 
extremity of the Red Sea, where was a promontory 
called Poseide'ion, and a grove of palms (Phoinikes). 
In the war with Gelon, Hamilcar, general of the Car- 
thaginians, offered to Poseidon a magnificent sacrifice, 
with a view to success in what were mainly land oper- 
ations. Agaiiij while sacrificing a boy to Kronos, he 
threw into the sea a crowd of victims in honor of 
Poseidon. 2 Later in the historic period, when Scipio 
attacks Carthago Nova, he assures his army that he 
has the favor of Poseidon made known to him in a 
dream ; 3 that is to say, that the foe was deserted by 
his own national and proper god. Pausanias, again, 
shows us the worship of Poseidon practised in parts of 
Greece, whither it never could have come had he been 
regarded as a mere sea-god ; and nowhere more than 
in Arcadia. Manifestly, if he were the chief and dis- 
tinctive god of the Phoenician nationality, it is probable 
that, as that acute race penetrated for traffic into 
Greece, they would carry with them their worship as 
they went. And again, in many of the local legends 
related by that author, which afford evidence of a very 
trustworthy kind, we find Poseidon possessed of at- 
tributes which, in the established religion of Hellas, 
belonged properly to Zeus. 4 

Let us now endeavor to examine the special and 
separate attributes of Poseidon, already enumerated, 
in the light of his Phoenician associations. 

i Diod. Sic. iii. 41. 2 ib. x i. 21 ; xiii. 86. 

3 Polyb. Bk. x. 11. 7; 14. 12. 

4 See 'Phoenicia and Greece/ in the Quarterly Eeview of 
Jan. 1868. 



252 



JUVENTUS MUNDT. 



With respect to the Trident, an instrument so un- 
suited to water, it appears evidently to point to some 
tradition of a Trinity, such as may still be found in 
various forms of Eastern religion, other than the He- 
brew. It may have proceeded, among the Phoenicians, 
from the common source of an older tradition ; and this 
seems more probable than its direct derivation from 
the Hebrews, with whom, however, we know that the 
Phoenicians had intercourse. 

Though the relation of Poseidon to the horse is not 
explained by his connection with Phoenicia, yet, as this 
connection points to his supremacy, and thus gives him 
wider associations than those of a merely maritime 
deity, it opens a field from which the true explanation 
may yet be gathered. I have suggested elsewhere a 
solution of the problem. 1 

Reference to what has been already said of the 
Phoinikes will show that the relation of Poseidon to 
them at once explains his character as the building- 
god. 

Lastly, with regard to the giants and monsters. The 
facts are as follows. 

The Cyclops, a godless race, are his children. 2 The 
impious giants are declared to be of the kindred of 
the gods : 3 this is probably through Poseidon. By the 
daughter of their king and arch-tempter Eurumedon, 
he was the father of the royal house of Scherie\ 4 
These giants the wicked and cruel Laistrugones are 
said to resemble. 5 By Iphimedeia, he was the father 
of Otos and Ephialtes, those monster-youths 6 who 



1 Supra, Phoenicians, Chap. V. 
3 Od. vii. 205, 206. 
5 Od. x. 120. 



2 Od. ix. 275, 412. 
4 Od. vii. 56-60. 
6 Od. xi. 305-320. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



253 



heaped up the mountains, and perished by the hands 
of Apollo. He was also the father of Briareus (called 
likewise Aigaion), who, however, took part against 
him. 1 

The effort of the two youths recalls the traditions of 
the Tower of Babel, and of the War in Heaven. 

Two considerations may be noticed, which tend 
to account for the place of Poseidon as the Phoeni- 
cian god, in relation to many rebellious and unruly 
spirits. 

First, the rough manners of a sea-faring and bucca- 
neering people. Down to the time of Cicero and of 
the Roman Empire, a rude and ruffian-like character 
was called Neptuni filius. 

Secondly, and in possible connection with what has 
just been said, Syria was inhabited by Canaanites ; and 
it has been observed that the names given in Scripture 
to that race indicate great stature and physical force, 
which became the basis of a tradition that they were a 
race of giants. 2 To the Greek mind this would very 
naturally convey that they were children of Poseidon 
as the Phoenician god. In a word, the Phoenician 
origin of Poseidon, and that only, appears to supply 
a key to his position and attributes, such as they are 
shown in the Olympian system. 

Section IY. Aidoneus. 

The figure of Aidoneus, or Aides, is one of the most 
obscure in the whole Homeric mythology. Yet here 
too there is, as I think, a reward for patient observa- 
tion ; and a clue is to be found which may enable us 



i II. i. 401-406. 



2 Le Normant, vol. ii. p. 244. 



254 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



to trace him home to his origin, as a Nature-Power of 
an older theogony, rather than what he might at first 
sight appear to be, little more than a shadowy creature 
of the Poet's imagination. 

The particulars respecting him in the Poems are 
but few. 

He was one of the deities who suffered at the hand 
of man : namely, of Heracles. 1 Now the associations 
of Heracles in Homer are Hellenic, as we may per- 
ceive from the co-operation of Athene with him ; and 
therefore this legend, so far as it goes, tends to place 
A'idoneus beyond the line of pure Hellenic tradition. 
It is true, that Heracles also assaulted Here : but the 
enmity between them was special, and founded on the 
jealousy of the goddess in favor of the ruling house 
of the Perseids. 

Heracles shot this god in the shoulder with an arrow 
at Pulos, not of Messenia but of Elis, according to 
Pausanias ; 2 and laid him prostrate among the dead, 
huge as he was. He rose, went to Olympos, and was 
cured by Paieon. 3 

Though a deity of the Underworld, 4 he is the brother 
of Zeus, having shared in the partition of the universe 
by lot. He is therefore adopted, like Poseidon, into 
the Olympian Court, and becomes entitled to appear in 
the Hellenic heaven, though supposed usually to abide 
in the Shades. 

His action in the Poems is singularly faint ; an 
arrangement of which we shall see the probable reason. 
During the battle of the gods, he trembles 5 lest the 
earth-shaker Poseidon should split the ground, and ex- 

1 II. v. 395. 2 V i. 25. 3. 3 n. v> 398-402. 

4 II. xv. 187, 191. & n xx . ex. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



255 



liibit the nether region, where he is lord (anax), through 
the chasm. This shuddering may be said to be the 
single action ascribed to him in the Poems. 

We have, however, passages illustrative of his char- 
acter and functions. Stern and inexorable, he is to 
men the most hateful of all the gods. 1 This declara- 
tion is curiously illustrated by the after history of the 
Olympian system. In all Greece, says Pausanias, 2 
there is no single temple of Aides, except at a single 
spot of Elis, where, according to tradition, he fought on 
the side of the Pulians against Heracles. And this 
temple was opened once a year : 2 6 1 suppose,' adds 
Pausanias, ' because men die but once.' This perhaps 
would have been a more apt reason if men had died 
once a year. 

He is also called the strong, 3 the hateful or loath- 
some (arvyegog')^ the gate-closer, 5 and in a recurring 
formula, the horse-famous QtlvzoTtmlog') . e 

Though he is the king of the world below, he seems 
to exercise no active power there : throughout the Elev- 
enth Odyssey, the duties of government are in the 
hands of Persephone, who also has, by the shores of 
Okeanos, the grove of worship. Odysseus, indeed, 
offered to him prayer and sacrifice, together with her, 
in the Underworld : 7 but there is no sign of his having 
any established worship upon earth. 

The helmet of Aides was used by Athene 8 to make 
herself invisible to Ares. We hear of this helmet in 
Hesiod, as worn by Perseus. 9 It appears to be a symbol 
of darkness. 

1 II. ix. 158. 2 Paus. as already cited. 

3 Od. x. 534 ; xi. 47, 277. 4 H. viii. 368. 

5 II. viii. 367. 6 II. v. 654; xi. 445; xvi. 625. 

1 Od. xi. 44-47. 8 II. v. 845. 9 Scut. Here. 227. 



256 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Twice, however, this deity comes before us in the 
legend of Phoenix. In the war of Caludon, Althaia, 
invoking woes on Meleagros, beats the earth with her 
hands, as she calls on Aides and Persephone" ; and she 
is heard and answered from beneath by the Erinus. 1 
In the other passage the process is reversed. The 
father of Phoenix calls upon the Erinus, and ' the gods ' 
fulfil his imprecation, 6 and Zeus of the Underworld, 
and Persephone the awful ; ' 2 perhaps meaning this, 
that these are the gods to whom he refers. 

Of this dualism m the exercise of the penal office I 
shall -speak elsewhere. But the name here given to 
Aides is very remarkable : he is the Zeus of the Under- 
world. How comes he by this title ? At first sight it 
indicates some very close relation between him and 
the traditions of Zeus in some one of their forms ; for 
Poseidon is never called the Zeus of the sea, although, 
as we have seen, he carries strong marks of supremacy 
in the Outer world. 

The part he takes at Pulos seems to mean that he 
was the old god of the country, and the patron of the 
inhabitants in their struggles against the invading 
Heracles. The epithet 6 huge ' further tends to asso- 
ciate him with the old Nature-Powers. The con- 
tinuance of his worship at Pulos in the historic period, 
when it had disappeared in all other places, is probably 
to be taken as an indication, that Elis was even in the 
earliest times a religious centre for Greece, and that 
Pulos was the head-quarters of the system, so far as 
Aidoneus was concerned. 

We shall see that, in the worship of Dodona, there 



i II. ix. 563-572. 



2 id. 453-457. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



25T 



was a Dione, associated as queen with the Pelasgian 
Zeus. This Dione, to make room for Here, disap- 
pears from active relations to mankind, and becomes a 
sort of lay-figure in Olympos. 

Was there, then, a residuum of the tradition of the 
Pelasgian Zeus, after the Olympian Zeus had been fully 
conceived and established ? And, as Gaia, or Demeter, 
or both, represent such a residuum in the case of Here, 
does Aidoneus represent it in the case of Zeus ? 1 

This would be an adjustment in full analogy with 
Homer's general method. And it would at once ac- 
count for the extremely faint outline which he has 
given to the figure of his Aidoneus, and for his giving 
the executive office in the Underworld to Persephone. 
As he keeps back Demeter, that she may not compete 
with Here, so he would keep back Aidoneus, that he 
might not compete with Zeus. 

Plutarch 2 has preserved a tradition, which seems to 
supply a missing link, respecting an Aidoneus, who was 
king of the Molossians ; and he thus connects the name 
with the neighborhood of Dodona. This Aidoneus 
releases Theseus, his prisoner, at the request of Hera- 
cles: a transaction afterwards transferred to the nether 
world. Thus one great Hellic personage obtains from 
him the release of another, which accords with the idea 
of his priority in time. 

Althaias's beating the earth would lead to the conclu- 
sion, that Aidoneus must have sprung from some tra- 
dition of an earth-god, and not an air-god. Hesiod, 
the Pelasgian poet, directs the husbandman to pray to 



1 Kreuzer, Symbolik, iv. 477. 

17 



2 Thes. c. 35. 



258 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



him, as well as to Demeter, to prosper the fruits of the 
earth. 1 

It is, I suppose, possible that at some period the 
rude religion of the Pelasgians, not yet having ar- 
rived at the Egyptian idea of Air and Earth, as repre- 
senting respectively the active and the passive prin- 
ciple, may have conceived of Earth as its own supreme 
deity. At any rate the relation of Aidoneus to the 
Zeus of Dodona appears to rest on probable evidence. 

And if so, then the argument for considering A'ido- 
neus as an earth-Zeus, rather than as an air-Zeus, is 
certainly recommended by various probable suggestions. 
The general appearance of the aggregate phenomena of 
Nature or Element worship in Homer, and also in 
Hesiod, is by no means such as to fall into a single 
consistent whole, and appears to imply that more than 
one theogony, or scheme of deity and religion, had pre- 
ceded the Olympian system. It is almost certain, that 
a plurality of such schemes must have presented dis- 
crepancies one with another. 

Moreover, when we regard Zeus as an air-god, he 
stands in the relation of the active Nature-Power to 
Earth as the female and passive one. Now this was 
the notion embodied in the Egyptian system, which 
may have been carried, in accordance with the report 
of Herodotus, and either directly or mediately, from 
Egypt to Dodona. But it is an idea implying a certain 
refinement, an action of the speculative mind in the 
discernment of cause and effect. An entirely rude 
people might perhaps be more likely to associate its 
idea of a God with the earth, of which the sur- 

1 Opp. 436 ; Dollinger, Heid. und Jud. p. 80. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



259 



face constantly tells them a tale of life, while from 
its bosom spring the stores that sustain their bodily 
existence. 

Section V. Leto. 

I think that every one who carefully examines the 
text of Homer with reference to the picture there given 
of Leto, must be struck alike by the slightness and by 
'the dignity of its outline ; and, I may add, by the 
absence (as far as I know), of any satisfactory attempt 
to find for her an origin in any pre-existing tradition, 
either of the Pelasgian Nature-worship, or of the Assy- 
rian or Egyptian systems. Without origin, without 
function, she seems to be a mother, and nothing more 
than a mother ; yet she is elevated into a commanding 
position in the Homeric system by the transcendent 
dignity of her son Apollo. 

The only epithets given to Leto in the poems are of 
a character entirely general : glorious, 1 right-glorious, 2 
lovely-cheeked, 3 lovely-haired. 4 

Her action in the poems is extremely circumscribed. 
She appears in the temple of Apollo, as his minister, 
with her daughter Artemis, to nurse and tend ^Eneas. 5 
She never performs any governing office of any kind, 
either upon nature or upon man ; though she looks 
with delight upon Artemis sporting in the wild wood. 6 
When she appears in the Theomachy on the Trojan 
side, and we are in hopes of finding a link to con- 
nect her with some definite prerogatives, we find the 
Poem so contrived, that the door is at once closed 



i Od. xi. 580. 
4 II. i. 36. 



2 II. xiv. 327. 
v. 447. 



3 II. xxiv. 607. 
6 Od. vi. 106. 



260 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



upon our curiosity by her release from the necessity 
of combat. 

With this blankness and faintness, let us now com- 
pare the high ascriptions of her dignity. It is a great 
note of honor, that this inactive and hindward deity 
should find a place in the Theomachy, from which 
Demeter and Aphrodite are excluded. Hermes is her 
opponent. But when the time for action comes, he 
declines the fight : he will not lay hands on the spouse- 
of Zeus : he gives her free leave to proclaim that she 
has worsted him. She makes no reply. 1 Again, it is 
the insult to Leto as the mother of only a pair, that 
is so fearfully avenged on Niob£ and her children. 2 
And Tituos, the son of Gaia, is tortured in Tartaros, 
because he sought to offer her violence as she was 
proceeding to the Pythian temple of her son. 3 In 
the ascending scale of the mothers of his offspring, 
she is placed by Zeus after Demeter and next to 
Here. 4 

Hesiod marries her to Zeus before Her£ ; which, con- 
sidering the supreme rank of Here in Olympos, appears 
to be the mark of some very old tradition. She is 
junior, among the consorts he assigns to Zeus, only to 
Metis, or the Spirit of Counsel. She is there made the 
daughter of Titan ; and, in the Hymn to Apollo, she 
appears as a sister of Zeus, and a daughter of Kronos 
himself. But, colorless as she is in her own being, all 
this seems to be a marked reflection from the dignity 
of Apollo. 

Some have explained this mute yet lofty personage 
in conformity, as they think, with the etymology of the 



i II. xxi. 497-501. 
3 Od. xi. 580. 



2 II. xxiv. 607. 
4 II. xiv. 327. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



261 



name ; and they regard Leto as the impersonation of 
Night, and Night as the mother from whose womb 
Day, or the Sun, is produced. The etymology appears 
to be uncertain : yet there may be no great difficulty in 
supposing an affinity between Leto and lateo, and a 
derivation from the root lath. 1 Nor is it any con- 
clusive objection to this theory, that we have already 
a goddess of Night in Homer. 2 For this might be the 
• obsolete Nature-Power, standing in the same relation 
to an impersonated Leto, as Gaia, or as Demeter, to 
Herd. The idea that the Night is the mother of the 
Sun, and also is the Moon, does not seem to be an 
idea much. more likely to commend itself to the Greek 
mind than to represent Chaos as the parent of Cos- 
mos, anarchy of order. At the same time it is con- 
ceivable that such an idea might find place in a 
scheme of Nature-worship. Nor was Apollo united 
with the Sun in the Olympian scheme of Homer. But, 
when we perceive the immense reverence accorded to 
a personage who is without any attribute or office in 
the poems except motherhood, we cannot but refer to 
the motherhood the dignity itself. 

It is quite possible, though it is not proved, that 
there may have been in the Pelasgian or in some other 
mythology, a personage who may be the base of the 
Homeric Leto, just as there are deities who form the 
base, or a base, of his Apollo. But as the properties 
attaching to his Apollo appear to be of an order too 
high to be justly accounted for by any thing we find 
in mere mythology, so, and even more, we are driven 
to seek outside the limits of the system a mode of 



1 Liddell and Scott, in voc. lavdavw. 



2 H. xiv. 261. 



262 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



accounting for the majesty and reverence, with which 
the Leto of Homer is surrounded. 

But if in Apollo there are exhibited, together with 
other matter, the features of that tradition of a De- 
liverer, divine, and yet in human form, which was 
handed down through the line of Patriarchs, and en- 
shrined in the Sacred Scriptures, we have to bear in 
mind that this Deliverer was emphatically described as 
the Seed of the Woman. Whether by the woman was 
meant His mother, or Eve, the general mother of our 
race, is immaterial to our present purpose. What 
appears obvious is that, if such a tradition imparted 
its glory to the character of 'Apollo, it could hardly fail 
to shed a portion of collateral lustre upon the person, 
in whom the human descent was signified and fore- 
shadowed. And it would be no matter of wonder, if 
the human figure of such a person were elevated to the 
Olympian Court, whose manifold orders made such ad- 
mission easy, and whose anthropomorphic principle 
tended to efface or weaken the lines of separation 
between its divinities and mortal man. 

I conclude, therefore, that in Leto we have a record, 
and a sufficiently clear indication, whether wrought 
into the texture of any current mythological legend, 
or otherwise, of the Hebrew tradition respecting the 
Woman, of whose seed the Deliverer of mankind was 
to be. 

Section VI. Demeter. 

The text of Pausanias exhibits by its enumeration 
of temples and remains, though it does not explain, 
the widespread prevalence and the great local impor- 
tance of the worship of Demeter in Greece. And this 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



263 



picture stands in marked contrast with her insignifi- 
cance in the action of the Homeric Poems, and in the 
Olympian system. 

We may safely assign to her one of the twenty chairs 
or thrones, 1 wrought for the Assemblies of Immortals 
in the palace of Zeus. But she nowhere appears as 
taking part in those Assemblies. She has no place in 
the Theomachy or in the War. She is never mentioned 
in the Poems except incidentally. 

The actual Homeric evidence concerning Demeter is 
as follows : — 

1. Ground corn, or meal, is called Ar^r^Qog avaij, as 
fire (or flame) is called (plo% 'H^alcxow? This is one 
of the proper associations of a Nature-Power. 

2. She is the companion of Zeus in one of the con- 
nections, which he relates in II. xiv. 326. Her child 
is not named by the Poet either there or elsewhere. 
But, in the later tradition, we find associated with her, 
in local worship, under the name of Core, the Damsel, 
a great and even awful personage, who thus fills the 
gap indicated by Homer, and who probably is repre- 
sented by his Persephone% queen of the Underworld. 
Certainly the two have a marked correspondence in 
character. 

3. She has a rs^evog at Purasos in Thessaly, 3 and 
these land-endowments, as far as we can discern from 
Homer, were Pelasgian. 

4. She is termed Ivnlo-Aaixog and lavdrj, fair-haired, 
and golden-haired, doubtless with reference to the 
idea beautifully expressed by Tibullus : 4 4 JDeponit 
flavas annua terra comas' 



1 II. xviii. 373. 
3 II. ii. 696. 



2 II. xiii. 322 ; xxi. 76. 
4 ii. 1. 48. 



264 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



5. She felt and gave way to a passion for a son or 
descendant of Iasos ; and this took place among the 
fields. 1 The name of Iasos is obscure, but seems to 
be certainly older than the Hellenes. Hesiod enlarges 
the tradition, and says this event came about in Crete, 
a country at least partially marked with strong Pelas- 
gic features. 2 This powerful element of lust in her 
character tends further to detach her, as a goddess, 
from Hellenic associations. 

6. She presides over the operation of winnowing ; 
and threshing-floors are consecrated to her. 3 

The later tradition, testifying to an extensively es- 
tablished worship of Demeter, places the most noted 
seat of it in Attica, which is an eminently Pelasgian 
district, with Eleusis for its head-quarter. 

In the Hymn to Demeter, she herself founds that 
worship ; and reports herself as having come thither, 
but unwillingly, 4 from Crete. This tradition may 
point to the epoch when the Phoenicians acquired 
the dominion of Crete. It certainly points to some 
decisive change tending to displace her worship. 

Pausanias 5 states, that there was in his time a tem- 
ple of Demeter Pelasgis at Corinth. 

Diodorus 6 reports that she merely represents the 
character of Isis in the Egyptian mythology ; that 
is to say, as earth-goddess and inventress of culti- 
vation. 

We have indeed three Homeric personages, all of 
whom appear to be related to the old tradition of 
Nature- worship, which made Earth a deity, and a 

1 Od. v. 125. 2 Theog. 971. 3 H. v. 499-502. 

* v. 123. 5 ii. 22. 2. 6 i. 13. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



265 



female deity. 1 The share of Demeter in that tradi- 
tion is established by her attributes in connection 
with food, and by her name of Vq pfcyQ, Mother- 
earth. 

Detached as this is from Hellenic associations, we 
cannot be surprised at our not finding her among the 
Hellenizing divinities of the War. Nor is it very dim- 
cult to conjecture a reason, why she could not conven- 
iently appear among those who were allies of Troy : 
namely this, that in Greece her personality had been 
sufficiently severed from that of Gaia, the Earth-god- 
dess proper, by the relegation of Gaia to the Under- 
world, and probably by the prevalence of her local 
worship, to allow her a place in Olympos ; but in 
Troas it would seem that this severance may not have 
been effected, and that the Earth-goddess was wor- 
shipped under her own name, like, and together with, 
the Sun. 2 

Perhaps the same line of thought may carry us to 
the reason, why Demeter appears to us without a 
daughter, and Persephone, the Awful, without a 
mother. For Persephone is the queen of that dark 
region in which Gaia dwells : but, as being an Hel- 
lenic deity, she cannot have a Pelasgian Nature-Power 
for her mother. Neither can she be made by Homer 
the daughter of Demeter, because Demeter herself 
bears many signs of character which associate her with 
Gaia, but which are wholly absent from the picture of 
Persephone". 

We find in the Albanian language the same form 
for the Earth as in Demeter, deou: 3 though it is 



1 See supra, p. 241. 

3 Hahn, Alb. Stud. Lexicon. 



2 II. iii. 104. 



266 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



combined with a form not found in that tongue, 
which gives us memme, and other like forms, for 
mother. 

The Demeter of Homer, then, seems to be a figure 
partially Hellenized, principally of Pelasgian concep- 
tion, and having parts of its material in Eastern 
tradition. 

In Athens, and in Olympia, her statue stood by 
that of Zeus : 1 and, according to Herodotus, the Scy- 
thians treated her as his consort. This is probably no 
more than the mythological impersonation given to 
the earth as the female or passive principle, subjected 
to the action of air, light, and sky.. 

Section VII. Dione. 

We find Dione present in Olympos, when Aphrodite" 
arrives there after her wound, and is received as her 
daughter. 2 She was therefore one of the wives of 
Zeus, who expressly owns Aphrodite as his child : 3 
and she, again, expressly names herself as one of the 
Olympian gods. 4 To console Aphrodite;, she relates 
how Ares had suffered at the hands of Otos and Ephi- 
altes, Here; and Aides at the hands of Heracles. But 
there is nothing in the passage to throw light upon the 
origin of Dione; herself; and it is the only passage of 
Homer, in which she appears. 

We learn however from Hesiod, 5 that Dione; was one 
of the daughters of Okeanos and Tethus. These 
daughters were sisters to the Rivers. Pherecydes, an 
Athenian logographer of the fifth century before Christ, 

i Hahn, Alb. Stud. Lexicon, p. 251. 2 II. v. 371, 373. 

3 II. v. 428. i II. v. 383. 5 Theog. 353. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



267 



represented her as one of the Nymphs of Dodona. 1 
The coins of Epiros show the head of a Zeus of Do- 
dona, the Pelasgian Zeus, crowned with oak-leaf, 2 an 
association sustained by that passage of the Odyssey 
which refers to the oak, from which the oracles were 
delivered. 3 Together with the head of Zeus on these 
coins is a crowned female head, which cannot be the 
head of Her£, as she belongs only to the Hellenic 
traditions. Strabo 4 says that Dione shared the temple 
of Zeus at Dodona. 

By combining together the fragments of this infor- 
mation, we may come with reasonable evidence to the 
conclusion, that Dion£ was of the family of Nature- 
Powers ; and that in this character she was associated 
with the elder Zeus of the Pelasgians, the air-god, as 
his wife. Some will have it, that she was the mother 
of Persephone. In Homer, the line between the dei- 
ties of the Underworld and of Olympos is broad, and 
not easily crossed : but Dion£ is the mother of Aphro- 
dite, and the traditions of Aphrodite, of Persephone^ 
and of Artemis, undoubtedly intermix. Upon the case 
of Dion£, we may make the general observation, that 
Homer does not pursue an uniform method of dealing 
with the divinities of all the old Theogonies. The darker 
and grosser of them, related to the earth, pass into the 
Underworld. But Okeanos remains, I suppose, in the 
Ocean-River ; and Nereus, we know, inhabits the sea- 
depth, with his family. The water of rivers is bound 
by the epithet Diipetes to the realm and to the idea of 
the air-god : and of the rivers Dion£ was the reputed 
sister. Therefore, like the air-god himself, she perhaps 

1 Creuzer, Symbolik, iv. 157. 2 lb. iv. 156. 

3 Od. xix. 297. 4 Strabo, b. vii. p. 329 C. 



268 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



was sufficiently ethereal in, her composition to pass, 
though but as a dimly-drawn and unimportant person- 
age, into the Olympian court. 

Section VIII. Athene and Apollo. 

These two are by far the most remarkable personages 
who adorn the Olympos of Homer; and the features, 
which they possess in common, are so much more 
numerous and significant than any by which they may 
be separated, that it will be convenient to treat them 
together for the purpose of bringing those common 
features into view. Such differences as subsist between 
them are much more in function, than in character. 

But I speak only of their features as shown in the 
Homeric text. It is perfectly possible that they may 
severally represent . in singleness groups of traditions 
which either had been, or which afterwards became, the 
property of more than one mythological personage. The 
names of these may be wholly distinct, and their places, 
outside the Homeric mythology, far apart. But the 
self-consistency of each of them, upon the page of Homer, 
is scarcely less remarkable than their mutual relation ; 
a relation which at one and the same time both associ- 
ates them with one another, and severs them from most 
of the other members of the Olympian Court. 

Their action, however, in the Poems is so extensive 
and multiform, that it will not be possible to exhibit all 
its particulars : nor is there the same need for such an 
operation as in cases where the evidence is scanty. 

Still, it is the more needful to make a comprehensive 
and accurate survey of their attributes and offices, be- 
cause upon the cases of these two deities will mainly 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



269 



turn the answer to be given to the interesting and im- 
portant question, whether there is oris not any sensible 
infusion into the Homeric system of the ideas related to 
the redemption of mankind, which have been preserved 
in the Holy Bible and among the Hebrews, and which 
may be termed for convenience Messianic. To their 
case, however, that of Leto is an important auxiliary. 

1. Unless we explain their position in the Olympian 
system by the aid of the Hebrew traditions, it offers to 
our view a hopeless solecism. The Olympian gods are 
arranged generally in two generations. The really 
great governing powers are given to the elder of the 
two, to Zeus, Poseidon, and to Here" ; with a parity of 
'dignity, though not of influence, to Aidoneus. All the 
three first, in one way or other, are representations of 
some conception of the Supreme Being which had pre- 
vailed elsewhere, or at an earlier epoch. But Athene^ 
and Apollo present no such character ; and, standing 
as they do in the junior line, we are obliged to ask, why 
do these two junior deities alone, and in a manner which 
cannot be mistaken, share and exercise. the prerogatives 
of supreme deity and government ? Inferior only in 
some respects to Zeus, they show no inferiority in any, 
and in some a marked superiority, to Herd or Poseidon. 

It is true indeed that both Athene and Apollo recog- 
nize the rights of the Uncle, as the Senior, in Poseidon. 
And, if I am right in considering him as having been the 
supreme god of a foreign mythology, who was afterwards 
naturalized in the Hellenic system, we may readily under- 
stand why, notwithstanding the coarse material of his 
being, he, too, is always shielded from palpable dishonor. 
Yet neither is he suffered to inflict any disgrace or shame 
on Athene! or Apollo. In the case of Apollo, the two 



270 



JUYENTUS MUNDI. 



part without fighting. 1 In the case of Athene, Poseidon 
withdraws when Odysseus is about to pass beyond the 
special sphere of that god ; 2 and the goddess then re- 
sumes the conduct of the affairs of the hero, and guides 
them to a happy issue. And when, in the disguise of 
Mentor, she attends the sacrifice of Nestor, and offers 
prayer to Poseidon, the Poet adds, 4 so she prayed; and 
of herself accomplished all the prayer.' 3 

Yet more notable is the relation of rank as between 
Here* and Athene. Once Athene appears, namely in the 
Debate of the First Book, as the messenger of Her£, to 
prevent the wrath of Achilles from bursting into flagrant 
violence : 4 as though Here had a title to employ her ser- 
vices. Yet, even in this 'case, Here*, it should be re- 
marked, supplies no instructions ; and Athene* frames 
her discourse after her own will, and with no regard to 
the special inclination of Here for Agamemnon. But 
elsewhere Homer has not scrupled to give to Athene* the 
first place. Twice the goddesses descend together from 
Olympos to the field of battle, in the chariot of Her£. 
It is Here* who yokes the horses, and acts as charioteer. 
Athene* not only mounts as the warrior beside her, but 
bears the Aigis of supreme power. 5 

When Thetis arrives at Olympos, in the Twenty-fourth 
Iliad, she receives the honors of a guest, and is placed 
by the side of Zeus, Athene* giving way to her. She 
probably held the second seat of rank on the left side, 
the first being, as we need not doubt, given to Here\ 
It is Her£, again, who sends the Sun to his repose. 6 
On the whole, an ingenious division of ascriptions seems 



i II. xxi. 468. 

3 Od. iii. 55-62. 

5 II. v. 711-752 ; viii. 381-896. 



2 Od. v. 380. 
4 II. i. 195. 
6 II. xviii. 239. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



271 



to be carried through, by means of which Here has the 
higher place in the internal relations of Olynipos, but 
AthenS far excels in all that immediately touches the 
government of men. 

And now as to the dignity of Apollo. 

In the ancient Hymn to this god, cited by Thucy- 
dides, it is told that the gods rise from their seats as 
he comes near. 1 

The superiority thus awarded to Apollo cannot be 
accounted for by anything in the mere order of Olym- 
pos, which it seems, indeed, to contravene. The child 
of Leto the obscure is preferred to the child of great 
Here. In a time of wild men and deeds, a god pre- 
siding over peaceful functions infinitely outshines the 
god of war. We must seek for the reason, then, in 
traditions flowing from another source. 

2. In the Fifth Iliad, Homer appears to inform us, 
that Athene was born of Zeus without a mother ; 2 a 
statement afterwards developed in the legend, which 
represents her as having sprung full-grown from his 
head. Now if the Hellenes had preserved the tradition 
of the Logos, it was impossible to clothe it, for the 
purposes of their system, in a more appropriate form. 
If they had not, how comes it that we have this one 
only exception made to the accustomed method of 
parentage? — a method so deeply ingrained in the 
Greek ideas, that even for Zeus a father must be found. 

But Apollo is the child of Leto ; and Leto, if we can 
give the word a meaning, means darkness or oblivion. 
If Apollo be considered as the Sun, the name of his 
mother may signify his birth from Night. But the 



1 Hymn, 2-4. 



2 II. y. 880. 



272 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Apollo of Homer's Olympos is not the Sun ; and of his 
functions a very large portion have no relation to the 
Night whatever. But if Homer saw in his Apollo a 
son of his Zeus, whose filial relation rested upon tra- 
ditions anterior to any which the current mythologies 
supplied, and if the word Leto expressed such an ob- 
scurity, this surely appears to supply a rational and 
consistent explanation. 

Thus the differences between the birth of Athene 
and that of Apollo, according to Homer, correspond 
with the differences between the two forms of the 
Messianic tradition represented respectively in the 
Logos, and the Son of the Woman. 

3. But while the rank and the power of these deities 
were traceable to those of Zeus in the Olympian sys- 
tem, it is plain that their dignity, their sanctitas, 
was greater than his. They were regarded with a 
more unmixed reverence, as if the traditions relating 
to them had been kept more free from earthy elements. 
These propositions do not rest merely on the general 
mode of handling them in Homer, but upon distinct 
and well-defined notes. They are never exhibited in 
the mood of sensual passion, like Zeus and Here, to 
say nothing of lesser deities. This is true, without 
the least qualification, of Athene. Apollo is stated to 
have carried off Marpessa the bride of Ideus ; 1 and he 
enters into the ribald jesting of Olympos in the Lay of 
the Net. 2 But the latter story, as has already been 
observed, is conceived in the spirit of a foreign my- 
thology ; and with respect to Marpessa, it may be 
remarked, that the numerous intrigues of the mythical 



1 U. iv. 559-564. 



a Od. viii. 334. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



273 



gods in Homer are never accompanied with violence, 
but are invariably made to appear as connections volun- 
tarily accepted ; while again they are always attended 
with the birth of children. In both particulars this 
story differs from them, and it much more resembles 
that of Ganymede, 1 who was carried up to be cup- 
bearer in heaven. Perhaps we are to understand that 
she was taken for the service of the deity at the 
neighboring shrine of Delphi, where a priestess so long 
officiated. 

But again, these deities, and these alone, are never 
subjected to disparagement in any other form. Here, 
as we have seen, had once been wounded, and Zeus 
had been, or was about to be, enchained ; but to these 
two no violence is ever offered. Further, Zeus is on 
the very verge of open conflict with Poseidon ; but in 
the Theomachy, the battle between Apollo and his 
uncle is avoided, while Athene inflicts a terrible re- 
verse on her huge opponent Ares. Again, Zeus him- 
self is, for the time, completely baffled and outwitted 
by the stratagem of Here ; and the Hellenizing Posei- 
don is enabled to take the field against his orders. 
But neither Athene^ nor Apollo are ever deceived or 
visibly put to shame. 

Nor will this appear an easy matter to arrange, 
when it is borne in mind that these two are the great 
agents of the two great Olympian deities respectively. 
It is, however, carefully contrived that they shall never 
come into actual collision one with the other. Apollo 
interferes against Patroclos ; but Athene is absent. 
Athene interferes against Hector ; but Apollo is absent. 



i II xx. 234. 
18 



274 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Again he is absent, in the Doloneia, while she con- 
ducts to a prosperous issue the night-expedition of 
Diomed and Odysseus. 1 In the Chariot-race of the 
Twenty-third Book, where the contest for the first 
place is between Eumelos and Diomed, Apollo, the 
partisan of Eumelos, throws the whip of Diomed out 
of his hand. 2 Athene restores it, apparently when 
Apollo has departed, and by breaking the chariot-yoke 
of Eumelos secures the victory of her favorite. Apollo 
here, though saved as far as the Poet's art can do it, 
comes off second best ; but only as against Athene. 
A second instance occurs, where he is brought to sug- 
gest, at a time when the Greeks 3 were losing ground, 
in lieu of the general conflict, a personal challenge 
from Hector, which was sure to be to their advantage. 
To appreciate the importance of this consideration, we 
must observe how other deities are liable to be foiled 
and worsted : Ares by Athene in the Fifth Iliad, and by 
Hephaistos in the Eighth Odyssey ; Herd and A'idoneus 
by Heracles ; Artemis by Here in the Theomachy ; Aph- 
rodite by Diomed ; Demeter, 4 and Herd too, 5 by Zeus. 
Zeus himself was delivered from a conspiracy by ex- 
traneous aid. 

There is a manifest difference to be observed as to 
the relations of will and affection with Zeus, between 
these two and the other deities. These alone he calls 
by the epithet ' dear.' 6 The case of Apollo stands 
alone as an exhibition of entire unbroken harmony 
with the will of Zeus, which in all things he regards. 
When he remonstrates, it is with the body of the gods, 

i II. x. 515. 2 II. xxiii. 384. 3 n. v ii. 20. 4 Od. v. 
5 II. xv. 18. 6 II. viii. 39, xxii. 183 ; and xv. 221, xvi. 667. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



275 



not with Zeus personally; 1 and HerS, rebuking him 
for his interference, is at once checked by Zeus. 2 
Though he seems to be the habitual organ for accom- 
plishing his father's designs, he is never so employed 
in any purpose which is about to fail ; such, for in- 
stance, as would have been the defence of Sarpedon. 
Zeus himself is by no means so carefully shielded, in 
great providential matters, as Apollo. 

The necessities of the Poem place Athene^ in antag- 
onism to Zeus, and she goes all lengths in the prose- 
cution of her purposes. But, if in opposition to the 
chief deity, she is on the side not only of justice, but of 
the Olympian decree, to which Zeus himself, his per- 
sonal partialities leaning one way, and his governing 
responsibility another, has felt it right to yield. She 
exposes herself, together with Hei*§, to his threats ; 
but his anger, in her case, is on account of her threat- 
ening him on a special and rare occasion, 3 while HerS 
ever leads him an uneasy life ; 4 and he seems anxious 
to take the first opportunity of reassuring her 5 as his 
beloved daughter. 

We have, then, in the case of Apollo, an uniform 
identity of will with the chief god, and in the case of 
AthenS only an exceptional departure from it. This 
is a very remarkable feature. In Here and Poseidon, 
it is wholly wanting. In Hermes and Iris we find the 
obedience of messengers, but not the unity of counsel 
and of mind. In general, such harmony can no more 
broadly be asserted of Olympos, than of a kingdom or 
court on earth. No traditions known to me appear in 
any way to account for it, except those of the Hebrew 

1 H. xxiv. 33. 2 H. xxiy. 65. 3 H. viii. 406-408. 

4 ii, i. 561-563. & II. viii. 39. 



276 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



race. It is evidently the very picture for which they 
are calculated to furnish the materials. 

The Hellenic religion represents Apollo as the de- 
fender of Heaven, and the Deliverer of the Immortals, 
in some great peril or struggle of contending spirits. 
He destroyed Otos and Ephialtes, the hugest, and after 
Orion the most beautiful, of all beings reared on earth, 
at the critical time when they are about to scale heaven 
by piling the mountains. 

This function has no natural connection with the 
mythological offices of Apollo, great and varied as they 
are. Neither as physician, harper, poet, prophet, 
archer, nor angel of death, can he appear entitled to 
claim the honor thus awarded to him. There is also 
in Homer a glance at a general rebellion of the Giants 
and at their fall *in consequence of their impiety. 1 
The later tradition retains, down to the Augustan age, 
this account of Apollo with a diversity of accompani- 
ments. In Homer, as the account is by no means to 
be explained through his Olympian offices, it appears 
to represent some older tradition, according to which 
this bright and lofty person, intimately associated with, 
and specially executing on earth, the divine will, had 
likewise put down in actual battle a rising of rebellious 
spirits in the Upper world. 

To Athene there is assigned by Homer no function 
resembling this. But the specialties of a certain 
divine supremacy are in a manner divided between 
them. Athene takes a peculiar jurisdiction in the 
Underworld ; and it is the more remarkable because, 
while she uses it in aid of Zeus, it does not come by 



i Od. yii. 56-60. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



277 



derivation from him. She declares 1 that but for her, 
Heracles, when he went to fetch Cerberus, never would 
have escaped the dire streams of Styx. This seems to 
mean that Zeus could not have delivered him. 

Lastly, we cannot fail to observe how the powers 
and offices of these two deities encroach upon and cut 
across the provinces of other recognized divinities, with 
a total absence of any reciprocity in regard to what 
may be called their special function. Athene^, as the 
goddess of war, not only rivals Ares, but excels him. 
She is the goddess of art, like Hephaistos, with some 
distinction, indeed, as he operates upon metals with the 
aid of fire, and she ordinarily on tissues. Yet not so 
as to limit her power ; for she, together with Hephais- 
tos, instructs the silversmith in all the departments of 
his art ; 2 and moreover teaches mensuration to the 
carpenter. 3 She presides over industry and over cun- 
ning, like Hermes ; and she shares with this deity his 
special function as conductor of the dead. 4 Again, in 
parts of her relation to Polity, as 'AyalEir/, 5 Xaooooog, 6 
GQvahtzohg? she approaches to the office of Themis : 8 
who summons and dissolves assemblies, thus dis- 
charging subordinate functions apparently on behalf 
of the primary political deity. 

Apollo, as the healer, discharges the office of Paieon. 
But while Paieon, 9 who is somewhat strongly marked 
as a deity of the Egyptian system, heals with the 
hand, 10 Apollo has too high a dignity to be thus rep- 

i II. viii. 362-369 ; cf. Od. xi. 623-626. 2 Qd. vi. 233, xxiii. 160. 
3 H. xv. 412. 4 Od. xi. 626 ; cf. xxiv. 1. 

5 'kye?iELrj — Spoil-driver, or Folk-leader. 

ti "kaoaaoog = Folk-stirrer. 7 epvatTcroTiLg — City-warder. 

8 Od. ii. 69. II. xx. 4. 9 Od. iv. 231. w n. y . 401. 



278 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



resented. He simply deposits the stunned ^Eneas 
in his temple, where Leto and Artemis proceed to 
treat him : 1 or, in answer to the prayer of Glaucos, 
heals from afar the wound of that gallant warrior. 2 

Apollo, as the musician, is supreme in the province 
of the Muses ; who are purely poetical and Hellenic 
impersonations, sometimes one in number, sometimes 
nine. 3 His concern is with the instrument, theirs with 
the voice ; but they perform together at the Olympian 
banquet, 4 and have, probably, a community of relation 
to the Bard. 

Apollo, as the agent of Zeus, moves in the same 
province as Hermes and Iris, especially the latter : 
but the highest offices are always reserved to him, in 
which the Divine intention is to take effect. It is left 
to Hermes to conduct Priam to the presence of Achilles, 
when the object is only that of a go-between, and the 
result depends upon the will of the hero. 

In the 4 Studies on Homer ' I called by the name of 
Secondaries 5 the deities who are thus placed, even in 
their own departments, below Apollo and Athene\ 
Perhaps the name is not appropriate, since these per- 
sonages have in general independent traditions of their 
own. The main point is that we should observe the 
approach to a divine universality of office and power 
in Apollo and Athene; , which can in no respect be 
accounted for by the formation of the Olympian family 
or its laws. 

Let us now turn to points connected with the human 
and terrestrial relations of these gr^at deities. 

I'll. v. 445-447. 2 II. xvi. 527-529. 3 Od. xxiv. 60. 

4 II. i. 603, 604. 5 Vol. ii. p. 59. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



279 



They are jointly invoked, together with Zeus, in a 
solemn but often-repeated formula expressing keen de- 
sire ; as when Achilles prays, 1 Father Zeus! and 
Athene ! and. Apollo ! would that every Trojan should 
perish, and every Greek.' 1 

And they are placed at the climax of honor in 
another formula : 2 

' Were I honored as are honored Athene and Apollo/ 

This line suggests the question whether, in the time 
of Homer, some visible form of worship may possibly 
have been paid to these two deities, as the agents of a 
Supreme God, presumed to be less accessible than 
they, and was at the same time not accorded to others. 
Be this as it may, they are the only deities whose 
temples are unequivocally named to us in Homer : the 
temple of Apollo 3 at Chrus£, on Pergamos, and at 
Putho : the temple of Athene 4 at Athens, on Per- 
gamos, and in Scherie\ 

Again, we do not find any local limit to the worship 
of these deities within the sphere of Greek knowledge 
and experience. Athene, the most Hellenic deity, is 
the patroness of Pelasgian Attica, and is also the object 
of the supplicatory procession of Trojan women in the 
Sixth Iliad. She is worshipped at Pulos, in Ithaca,, in 
the Greek camp. Apollo, the great Trojan deity, 
has his priest among the Kicones, his temple at Putho, 
his altar in Delos, his grove and festival in Ithaca ; 
and he is the fountain-head of the prophetic gift, which 
pervades all parts of Greece. He is connected with 

1 II. xvi. 97. 2 ii. V iii. 540 ; xiii. 827. 

3 II. i. 39 ; v. 445 ; ix. 404. 

* II. ii. 549 j vi. 88, 297. Od. vi. 320-322. 



280 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Kille, with Lycia in the south, and with the Lyeian 
Trojans in the north of Asia Minor. Seers, whom he 
always endows with vision, are found 1 even among the 
Cyclops. He feeds the horses of Admetos in Picric, 
claims the daughter of Marpessa in iEtolia, and slays 
the children of Niobe near Mount Sipulos. In truth, 
he seems scarcely less universal than that scourge of 
Death, to which he stands in so near and solemn a 
relation. 

No deity of the Poems, except Zeus, can at all com- 
pete with Apollo and Athene in this respect. 

Next, Apollo and Athene* are independent of all the 
limitations of place : another point in which no other 
deity, but Zeus, appears to resemble them. 

Athens, indeed, appears to be indicated in the Odys- 
sey as the abode of Athene. 2 Apollo has no abode 
directly assigned to him. But the sign of omnipres- 
ence in both is, that prayer is addressed to them from 
all places indifferently. Only four times 3 do we find 
actual petitions to Apollo, and all these in Troas. But 
we may observe this essential point ; that, as in the 
two last of these for example, he is presumed to be 
present, and to hear it as a matter of course, without 
reference to any special residence or function. To 
Athene we have no less than twelve prayers given in 
the Poems, in Ithaca, ScheriS, Pulos, Troy, and the 
Greek camp ; and always to her as an universal not a 
local power. But even Poseidon, great as he is, never 
has prayer offered to him, except near the sea, or by 
his own descendants. 



i Od. ix. 508. 2 Od. vii. 80, 81. 

3 II. i. 35-43 ; 450-457 ; iv. 100-103, 116-131 ; xvi. 513-529. Add, 
however, the references in II. xi. 363, 364, and i. 65, 473. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



281 



In truth, but a small number of deities in Homer 
are made the subjects of actual invocation. For ex- 
ample, there is no invocation anywhere to Aphrodite, 
Ares, Hermes, Hephaistos, Demeter, or even Here\ 
Artemis 1 and Poseidon are invoked : the first in con- 
nection with function, the latter with place. We have 
also addresses from mortals to the deities presiding 
over the Oath, or ruling in the Underworld. But 
general prayer is addressed only to Zeus, Pallas, and 
Apollo. 

Again, these favored deities are exempt from physical 
or other infirmity or need in general. They are never 
excited by mere personal passion. Neither of them 
individually eats or drinks ; as Hermes, for example, 
does, at the dwelling of Calypso, 2 or as Iris fears lest 
she should lose her share of the Ethiopian hecatomb. 3 
Neither of them sleeps, or is weary, or is wounded, or 
suffers pain. They are never introduced as delighting 
in sacrifice apart from obedience. Artemis sends the 
boar to Caludon because she had been forgotten in the 
offerings: 4 but Apollo's wrath, in the First Iliad, is not 
for the want of prayer or hecatomb, it is on account of 
the shame and wrong done by Agamemnon to Ohruses 
his priest. 5 Diomed and Odysseus are dear to Pallas : 
but she never asks or commends their bounty at the 
altar, as Zeus commends that of Hector, and of Odys- 
seus himself. 6 When sacrifice is offered to Apollo, in the 
First Iliad, 7 after the restitution, his pleasure is not stated 
to have been in the savor of it, but in the hymn of praise 
which was addressed to him . Zeus can accept the victims 



1 Od. xx. 61. 
4 II. ix. 536. 
1 II. i. 473. 



2 Od. v. 94. 
5 II. i. 65, 93. 



3 II. xxiii. 207. 
6 II. xxiv. 68. Od. i. 66. 



282 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



even while he frustrates the petition : 1 but when Athene 
in like manner declines a prayer of the Trojans, she is 
not stated to accept the offering; 2 and the idea that 
when offended she can be appeased by mere offerings is 
thus practically repudiated. 3 

Again, attributes of bulk stand at the bottom of the 
scale of excellence. They are indirectly assigned to 
Pallas by the weight of the Aigis which she carries. 4 
This is possibly on account of the direct competition 
which subsists between the huge Ares, as a god of war, 
and herself, presiding over the same province. 5 Bulk 
is never ascribed to Apollo. 

Again, as to locomotion. Apollo and Athene move 
without the use of any instruments, such as wings, 
chariots, or otherwise. Their journeys are usually 
undistributed and instautaneous. They set out, and 
they arrive. 6 On one occasion only, Athene* employs 
the foot-wings 7 which were used by Hermes. But there 
are details and steps in the movements of Hermes, 
Poseidon, and Here. 8 

The ordinary Olympian deity, when offended by 
mortals, most commonly makes his appeal to Zeus 
for redress. Thus Poseidon acts with respect to the 
Greek rampart ; Aphrodite, tacitly, after her wound 
by Diomed ; Ares, in the same condition; and Helios, 
after his oxen have been devoured by the crew of 
Odysseus. 9 

But the retributive action of Apollo, in the Plague of 

i It. ii. 420. 2 II. vi. 311. 3 Od. iii. 143-147. 

4 II. ii. 448. 5 See II. xviii. 516. 

6 Od. i. 102-103. II. xv. 150. 7 Od. i. 96. 

8 Od. v. 50-58. II. xiii. 17-31 ; xiv. 225-230. 

9 II. v. 869, 426 ; vii. 445. Od. xii. 377-388. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



283 



the First Iliad, is wholly independent, and is the more 
remarkable since he wastes the army of the Greeks to 
the great peril of an enterprise promoted by such power- 
ful divinities. In the Third Odyssey, 1 on the return of the 
Greeks, we are told that Zeus designed evil for them by 
reason of their crimes, wherefore many perished by the 
wrath of Pallas ; that she could not be appeased, and that 
Zeus suspended calamity over them. There is no sign here 
of an appeal to Zeus, but rather of an identification of the 
two agencies in the providential government of the world. 

Again, Apollo and Athene administer powers which 
are otherwise the special or exclusive property of Zeus. 

The air-functions of that deity are sometimes, indeed, 
exercised by Here. This may reasonably be accounted 
for by her relation to him as wife. No kindred reason 
is available for the selection of these two among his chil- 
dren for an office so elevated-. Athene^, with Her£, 
thunders in honor of Agamemnon : 2 and she can cause 
the winds to cease, or to blow. 3 So he too sends for the 
Greek ship a toward breeze. 4 But the most significant 
of all the participations of the supreme power is confined 
to Athene with Apollo. Both of them in turn carry the 
Aigis in the Fifth and Fifteenth Iliads respectively. 5 
And, in truth, these two deities seem throughout the 
Iliad to share with Zeus the function of Providence ; 
the one as towards the Trojans, the other as towards 
the Greeks. 6 Indeed, in the Odyssey more especially, 
they fill the very highest offices of divine government 
over the minds of men ; which appear to be conducted 
by Pallas, much more than by Zeus himself. 

i Od. iii. 132 seqq. 2 n. x i. 45. 

3 Od. v. 109, 382-385, et alibi. 4 n. i. 479. 

5 II. v. 735-742 ; xv. 229. 

6 See Studies on Homer, Olympos, pp. 115-122. 



284 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



There is a very peculiar function attaching to the 
divine supremacy, in the signification of coming events 
to men by the flight of birds, and by atmospheric signs. 
This power, being connected with the future, is dis- 
tinguished from the general power over external nature. 
It is shared with Zeus principally by Apollo, but also by 
Athene\ He sends the Kirkos, or wheeling falcon, to 
Thrace, as an omen of success to Telemachos r 1 she, a 
heron to cheer Odysseus and Diomed in the Night-ex- 
cursion of the Tenth Iliad. 2 She stupefies and bewilders 
the Suitors as their ruin approaches : but his agent, 
Theoclumenos, 3 announces, and he therefore may be 
considered as supplying, the portents which beset the 
Hall of the Palace before the final catastrophe. 

Nagelsbach observes, that the power of signs is con- 
fined to Zeus, Here, Apollo, and Pallas. 4 But the signs 
exhibited by Here, the- thunder of the Eleventh Iliad, 
and the gift of speech to the horses of Achilles, involve 
no knowledge or signification of the future. The predic- 
tion delivered by the horse Xanthos appears to be his 
own, and not the gift of the goddess. 

It may be affirmed generally, that both these deities, 
but especially Athene, exercise a power over external 
nature almost without limit. Assuming the human 
form, they can make themselves visible to one person 
only among many. 5 They, and none but they, frame 
images of human beings which can speak or fight : 6 
Pallas alters at will the figures and features of Odys- 
seus, Penelope, and Laertes ; having command, ap- 

i Od. xv. 526. 2 ii. x . 274. 

3 Od. xx. 345-371. 4 Horn. Theol. iv. 16 ; p. 147. 

•5 II. i. 198, and (apparently), xvii. 321-324. 

6 II. v. 449. Od. iv. 796, 826. 



THE DIYINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 285 

parently, of some organic power over matter and vital 
force. While Athene's jurisdiction as to storms is un- 
limited, Apollo diverts rivers from their beds, and 
makes them converge upon a point. 1 I 

In like manner they act upon the mind of man by 
infusing fear, courage, counsel, as the case may be. 
These operations are never assigned to any deity ex- 
cept those of the first order in Olympos. 

But when Poseidon breathes valor into the two 
Ajaxes, he does it by striking them ; just as when he 
has to convert the ship of the Phaiakes into a rock, he 
drives it downward with a blow of his hand. 2 On the 
other hand, Apollo infuses courage into Hector and 
Glaucos, and heals also the wounds of the latter chief- 
tain, 3 without any outward act. Most of the corporal 
changes effected by Athene in the Odyssey are sim- 
ilarly brought about. Only in the case where she 
effects a total transformation of Odysseus, she touches 
him with her wand. 4 

This exception, as a rule, from the use of instru- 
ments in giving effect to their will, is a sign of a high 
conception, on the part of the Poet, with respect to 
their divine power. In the Kestos of Aphrodite, in 
the wand of Hermes, an intrinsic virtue resides, apart 
from the will of those personages respectively. These 
are not mere symbols : they are causative seats of 
power. That Apollo and Athene do not use any such 
vehicle, is a sign of force, essential, independent, and 
supreme, over matter. 

Yet once more, as to the common features of these 
extraordinary personages. 

i II. xii. 24. 
3 II. xvi. 528. 



2 II. xiii. 59. Od. xiii. 164. 
4 Od. xiii. 429 ; xvi. 172, 456. 



286 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Their moral standard is conspicuously raised above 
that of the Olympian family in general. 

Athene has the purity of Artemis, whom in all other 
points she eclipses. This prerogative is expressly 
acknowledged in the ancient Hymn to Aphrodite. 1 
No such statement can be made of any other among 
the active goddesses : not of Here, Thetis, or Hemeter ; 
much less of Aphrodite herself. 

So we have in the Poems sons of Zeus, of Poseidon, 
of Ares, of Hermes ; all of them the fruit of their 
intrigues with women ; but no son of Apollo. Hephais- 
tos, indeed, is exempt from the charge, probably on 
account of his personal deformity. Down to the time 
of JEschylus, 2 Apollo retained the epithet of ' the 
pure.' Later still, it had been lost ; 3 and the legend 
of Marpessa, which by no means requires such a con- 
struction in Homer, had been read in the light of the 
later tradition, and had descended to the common 
level. His share in the scene described by the Lay of 
Demodocos may perhaps be accounted for by the fact 
that the subject belonged to a foreign theology, though 
it may have been one which was already beginning to 
act upon Greece. 

I do not however attach to the term ' purity,' in an 
inquiry of this nature, its full Christian sense ; in 
which it appears as one portion of the panoply of a 
complete and almost seraphic virtue, and is elevated 
as well as sustained by the spirit of the marvellous 
religion to which it belongs. The moral characters of 
Apollo and Athene are lofty, if measured by the Olym- 
pian standard, although they will not bear the tests 



1 vv. 8, 18. 



2 Suppl. 222. 



3 S. Clem. Alex. p. 20, B. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



287 



which the Christian system would apply. Apollo de- 
scends from his height, in the scene where he strikes 
Patroclos from behind, and knocks his armor off, so as 
to bring the Greek hero into that unequal position in 
which even the keen national feeling of the Poet 
would allow him to be conquered by a Trojan. And 
Pallas undertakes a mean office when she incites Pan- 
daros to a breach of the Pact. Counsel, with her, 
certainly degenerates at times into craft and fraud. 1 
But these drawbacks are in both cases exceptional. 
Speaking generally, the two are beautiful and majestic 
delineations ; and Athen£ in particular has many of 
the characteristics of the Eternal Wisdom, which came 
forth from the bosom of God. 

The distinctive functions of Apollo, which sever him 
from Athene, are many. The highest are these four: 
that he is familiarly employed by Zeus, with whom he 
has a perfect conformity of will, as his agent in the 
government of human affairs ; that he is the champion 
of Zeus and of Heaven against the rebellious powers ; 
that he is the minister of death ; and, finally, that to 
him alone there seems to be committed an absolute 
knowledge of the future, and the administration of 
that prophetic gift which Calchas, though acting in and 
for the Greek army, held from him. 2 Athene, on the 
other hand, is occasionally the agent of Zeus, with 
whose will, however, she is less uniformly associated. 3 
Apollo has also, besides the gifts of the bow, of healing, 
and of song, a special association with the light. 

The ministry of death, exercised by Apollo for men 
as by Artemis for women, is most of all remarkable 



,1 II. iv. 86-92. Od. xiii. 299. 
8 II. iv. 70. Od. xxiy. 539-545. 



2 II. i. 72. 



288 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



on account of its twofold aspect. It is sometimes 
penal, as with Ariadne ; x or even a terrible vengeance, 
as with the children of Niobe\ 2 It is sometimes a tran- 
quil and painless deliverance from the burden of the 
flesh, as in the island of Surie. 3 Another peculiarity 
of this prerogative is, that it refers to death produced 
without second causes. All other deaths whatever in 
the Poems, natural or violent, appear to be referred to 
second causes. There is a mythological impersonation 
of Death (Thanatos) provided by the Poet, to which to 
refer them. The death brought about by Apollo and 
Artemis is an exceptional death, in the point of being 
directly due to their supreme will and special ministry. 

And this is at least a wonderful phenomenon in the 
Olympian system, especially when we consider how 
gloomy and repulsive, in the view of Homer and his 
age, was the extinction of our mortal life, and the 
prospect of the region that lay beyond it. Here is, as 
matter of fact, a tradition of a Power that was to take 
away the sting from Death, preserved for the time, but 
for the time only, among a people who surrounded 
death in general with associations of a wholly different 
character. Even if it stood alone, we should be driven 
surely to treat it as derived, through whatever channel, 
from some ancient and signal promise of a Deliverer 
for the human race. It does not however stand alone, 
but forms part of a multitude of varied testimonies, 
all converging upon the same point. 

Athene, besides her great special prerogatives of 
War, Policy, and Industrial Art, is invested generally 
with yet greater power than Apollo, and rises to a still 



i Od. xi. 324. 



2 II. xxir. 606 ; cf. vi. 205. 



3 Od. xv. 407. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



289 



higher grade of moral majesty. She seems also, by 
virtue of a latent partnership in the divine supremacy, 
to partake of or represent something analogous to sev- 
eral of his peculiar gifts. She enters into his knowl- 
edge of the future ; for in the Ithacan cave she foretells 
to Odysseus all that he has yet to suffer. 1 And if he 
is the champion of the gods in Olympos (an office 
which she shared with him in the later tradition), she, 
as I have above observed, possesses a jurisdiction in 
the Underworld, 2 which appears to cross and over-ride 
that of its appointed rulers. Though she cannot avert 
death from a mortal, she can afterwards extricate him 
from its grasp. 3 

The limits of this work forbid me to pursue the my- 
thological history of Athene and Apollo through the 
later literature of the Greeks and Romans. They con- 
tinue, it may be said generally, to hold positions of 
great splendor, but the distinctive character of their 
features as a whole is gradually enfeebled and effaced. 

Even the hasty reader of Homer cannot fail to be 
struck with it ; but it is only by a minute and careful 
observation of particulars that the whole case can be 
brought out. It then becomes fully manifest that, by 
not one, but a crowd of attributes and incidents, they 
are severed from the general body of the Olympian 
deities of Homer, and closely associated together, 
though very far from being even substantially identified, 
far less confused. These attributes are partly intel- 
lectual, partly moral. The general result is to render 
their position grossly anomalous and wholly inexpli- 
cable, if the explanation of it is only to be sought in 

1 Od. xiii. 306. 2 II. viii. 362-369. Od. iv. 750-753. 

3 Od. iv. 752, 753. 

19 



290 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



the laws of the Olympian system, or in such traditions 
as the older nature-worship, or the Egyptian, or Syrian, 
or Phoenician mythologies could supply. 

But when we turn to the Hebrew annals, we find 
there a group of traditions, belonging to what may be 
termed the Messianic order, which appear to supply us 
with a key to the double enigma. The general char- 
acteristics of the Messianic anticipations are in marked 
conformity with the common prerogatives of Pallas and 
Apollo. And the distinctions of the two deities fall in, 
not less clearly, with the twofold form in which those 
anticipations . are presented to us ; the one, which 
pointed to a conception more abstract, and less capable 
of being confounded with mere humanity ; the other, 
to a form strictly personal, and intimately associated 
with our nature. 

In these resemblances, there appears to be found 
a very strong presumption, that the Hellenic portion 
of the Aryan family had for a time preserved to itself, 
in broad outline, no small share of those treasures, of 
which the Semitic family of Abraham were to be the 
appointed guardians, on behalf of all mankind, until 
the fulness of time should come. 

It is obvious that such traditions, when cut off from 
their fountain-head, supplied a material basis for that 
anthropomorphic character which distinguished the 
Greek religion from first to last, and associated it so 
closely with the whole detail of life. For, according to 
their tenor, the conception and representation of deity 
in human form were no idle fancy, but were the great 
design of the Almighty God for the recovery of an 
erring, suffering, and distracted race. 

On the importance of these propositions I need not 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



291 



dwell. The more they are important, the more it is to 
be desired that they should be strictly noted. The 
intention of these pages is both to invite, and some- 
what to assist, all such as shall be disposed to under- 
take the pains of such an investigation. 

Section IX. Hephaistos. 

Hephaistos bears in Homer the double stamp of a 
Nature-Power, representing the element of fire, and of 
an anthropomorphic deity, who is the god of Art, at 
a period when the only fine art known was in works 
of metal produced by the aid of fire. 

As Homer gives us faint traces of the elemental god 
of air in endios, and as his Nereus is still repre- 
sented in the nero of modern Greek for ' water,' so 
he actually employs the name Hephaistos in one pas- 
sage undeniably for fire, 1 if he does not also mean 
the flame of fire in other passages where he mentions 
4 the flame of Hephaistos.' This deity is worshipped 
in Troas, where he has a wealthy priest. 2 

Halm finds in the fouki-a of the Albanian tongue, 
signifying force, the root of the word Vulcan us; 3 
and quotes Varro, 'ab ignis vi et violentia Vul- 
can us est diet us.' Schmidt connects the name 
with fulgere and fulmen. 4 

Hephaistos is not one of the seven astral deities of 
the East, who stood in relation to seven metals. 

It is doubtless in a double or plural tradition that 
we are to seek the explanation of our finding Hephais- 
tos, on the one hand, bearing the marks of antiquity 

i II. ii. 426. 2 ii. v . 9. 3 Alban. Studien, p. 252. ~ 

4 Beckniann, Inventions, Art. Metals. 



292 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



which belong to a Nature-Power, and, on the other 
hand, made known to us as an infant, the offspring of 
Zeus and Herd, whose mother sought to hide him, that 
is to put him out of the way, on account of his lame- 
ness : a sure sign that, in the view of Homer, he was, 
so far as regards his higher character of Art-master, 
a deity of more recent introduction. This part of the 
traditions can relate to no mere fire-god. He is saved 
by Thetis, the grand mediatress of the Theogonies, and 
Eurunome, the daughter of Okeanos ; and hid by them 
in a submarine cavern, where, with the tidal flood of 
ocean ever gurgling in his ears, he spends his time for 
nine years in working clasps, and necklaces, and other 
trinkets. 1 Such an assemblage of images is highly 
Phoenician, that is to say Eastern, in its color. 

The combination in this place of Thetis, a sea-god- 
dess, and the ocean-deity, is remarkable ; and stands, 
I think, alone in Homer. I understand it to betoken 
the dual course of tradition relating to Hephaistos. 
The Okeanos of Homer is the sire of gods, or their 
source. 2 This may indeed relate to the Nature-Pow- 
ers, rather than to the Olympian gods, from whom 
Okeanos stands somewhat widely apart. If so, Euru- 
nome has her share in the transaction as a representa- 
tive of the older dynasty of gods, and Thetis as a 
personage who has the entree to the newer circle. But 
it seems more probable that as Okeanos, the father of 
Perse, and father-in-law of Helios, has strong East- 
ern associations, Eurunome represents the newer and 
higher character of Hephaistos imported from the East, 
and that Thetis, according to her own stock, befriends 
him as a Nature-Power. 

i II. xviii. 394-405. 2 II. xiv. 201. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



293 



Both the water of Ocean, and the connection of fire 
with fine art in metals, probably attach Hephaistos to 
the channels of Phoenician, in its widest sense of 
Eastern, tradition : while he may have represented 
the simple element of fire in the Pelasgian systems 
of religion. 

The latter relation accounts for his being worshipped 
in Troas, even while he is one of the deities who, fol- 
lowing his chief bent, takes decidedly, though not 
passionately, the Greek part in the quarrel. And, 
accordingly, it is under the rude conception of mere 
fire that he is matched, in the Theomachy, with the 
river Xanthos, whom he exhausts by drying up the 
stream, and thus sorely afflicts, until Here inter- 
cedes. 

Through all his other marked operations in the 
Poems, Hephaistos, instead of resolving himself into 
the element, remains entirely anthropomorphic, al- 
though he is so far from satisfying the Greek ideal 
of a god in respect of form. He is such in the Olym- 
pian banquet at the close of the first Book, at the smithy 
or forge in his own palace, and again in the lay of 
Demodocos. 

Married to Aphrodite in the Odyssey, he appears in 
the Iliad as the husband of Charis. 1 Now Aphrodite 
is a real member of the mythological system, whereas 
Charis is loosely and faintly delineated, and seems 
almost to hover between an idea and a person. Some 
have treated these two representations as discrepant, 
and have used them in support of the theory, which 
separates the authorship of the two Poems. Others 
(myself included) may have suggested modes of re- 

1 Od. viii. 269 ; II. xviii. 382. 



294 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



conciliation between them, which are insufficient. 1 
Having now arrived, I think, at adequate proof of the 
Eastern or Phoenician character of the mythology, as 
well as the scenery, of the whole sphere of the Voy- 
ages, I find in this fact the simplest explanation of a 
difference, which, instead of any longer impeaching, 
rather tends to sustain the unity of authorship. He- 
phaistos and Aphrodite, as husband and wife, owe that 
relation probably to a Syrian or Syro-Phoenician source. 
Hephaistos and Charis, in the sense of the Hellenic 
mythology, together represent, with a perfect pro- 
priety, the strength and the grace, the beauty or 
charm, which require to be combined in works of 
Art. Nagelsbach, accordingly, treats this marriage 
as allegorical. 2 

The Poems, however, establish a relation, be it al- 
legorical or not, between the Charites and Aphrodite ; 
for the Charites receive her on her return from the 
scene of the Net to Cyprus, where they bathe, anoint, 
and vest her. One junior of their band, promised by 
Her£ as a wife to Hupnos, or the god of sleep, in 
Lemnos,is named Pasithee. Two handmaids of Nausi- 
caa in Scherie. draw their beauty from the Charites. 
There is therefore some evidence to give them a per- 
sonality beyond that which the single mind of the Poet 
can confer. Their relation to Eastern personages sug- 
gests that they may have had a place in Eastern tradi- 
tion ; while it seems that they acquired with time a 
recognized character and worship in Greece. 3 Profes- 
sor Max Miiller derives their name, as well as that of 



1 Studies, vol. ii. p. 257. 2 Horn. Theol. p. 114. 

3 Welcker, vol. i. p. 696. Dr. Schmidt in Smith's Diet. sub. voc. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



295 



the Harits or Horses of the Sun, from the Sanscrit 
root ghar, to glitter, to render brilliant by oil. 1 

The deity of Hephaistos is matchless within the 
sphere of his own art. It is in concert with Athene^, 
that he grants to mortals the gift of manual skill ; 2 
but his own works are the most wonderful recorded of 
any god. In addition to every charm of grace and 
splendor, they have the actual gift of life. In Olympos, 
the metal handmaids of the limping god both think 
and speak ; 3 and in Scherie, the porter-dogs of Alki- 
noos 4 have perpetual existence, and perpetual youth. 
Even in the inanimate Shield there are varied signs of 
life. 5 A certain kindliness of nature marks the inter- 
vention of Hephaistos, in the first Book, to stop a 
quarrel 6 between his parents ; and that he was en- 
dowed with warm affections is evident from the recital 
he there gives of a former effort made by him to save 
Here from the wrath of Zeus, which entailed on him a 
fall from heaven to earth, 7 as well as from the warm 
gratitude 8 he displays towards Thetis for the benefit 
she had conferred on him. His conduct respecting 
Here is the more praiseworthy, in proportion as her 
attempt upon his deformed infancy had been unnatu- 
ral. 9 In the lay of the Net, under the heaviest provo- 
cation his conduct is not vindictive. 

Hephaistos is the architect of the palaces of the gods, 10 
as well as the artificer of the most conspicuous works of 
Art mentioned in the Poems. 11 He made a lock for 

1 Lectures on Language, ii. 373, 375. 

2 Od. vi. 233 ; xxiii. 160. 3 n. xviii. 417. 
4 Od. vii. 91-94. 5 Znfra, Chap. XIII. 6 n. i. 571-589. 

7 II. i. 590-594. 8 ii. xv iii. 395. 9 n. xviii. 395-397. 

w II. i. 607 ; xiv. 167, 338. u II. viii. 195 ; Od. iv. 617. 



296 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Here; which not only no man, but no god could open. 1 
Lemnos appears to be his chosen abode, as a volcanic 
isle : of other similar islands or spots, in the later 
mythology, we find the like recorded. 

Out of his own art, he carries no signs of divinity in 
Homer ; he does not act on general nature, or on the 
human mind, unless in a case where the sons of his 
own Priest are concerned ; and these he merely conceals 
in a cloud of vapor, a power which even Aphrodite seems 
to exercise on behalf of the body of Hector. His powers 
of perception are so limited, that, in the lay of Demo- 
docos, he is ignorant of what takes place, during his 
absence, in his own house, until the Sun informs him, 
whom he again employs as a spy ; nor, in the Twenty- 
first Book of the Iliad, is he aware of the danger in which 
Achilles stands from the united Rivers, until Here in- 
forms him, and bids him act. 2 

Section X. Ares. 

The Ar£s of Homer, like his Poseidon, exhibits that 
idea of deity which both rises above man, and sinks 
much below him : in point of strength divine, in point 
of mind and heart simply animal. He is a compound 
of deity and brute. 

But Ares is greatly inferior to Poseidon in that class 
of conceptions, to which both, in a marked manner be- 
long. Glory and awe surround the one, from his unfail- 
ing might, and his high origin. Ares represents a huge 
mass of animal force ; but he is so exhibited in the 
action of the Iliad, as to fall into much of the contempt 



i II. xiv. 167, 8. 



2 II. xxi. 328 333. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLTMPOS. 



297 



(in a certain sense) which is evidently meant to attach 
to Aphrodite. 

It seems safe to assume that a god, and more espe- 
cially a god of war, whom Homer represents as wounded 
and disabled by a Greek warrior, could not, in the time 
of Homer, have been a deity of acknowledged worship 
and renown in Greece. Nor is there found in the Poems 
any trace of such worship. No prayer or sacrifice is 
offered to him : he has no general command over the 
mind of man, or over external nature. It is said, in- 
deed, that he entered into Hector while that chieftain 
was engaged in putting on the armor of Achilles ; 1 but 
this appears to treat him simply as a passion, just as in 
other places his name becomes a synonym for war, or for 
a spear. None of the five great gods of the Poems are 
ever said thus to enter into (as if it were to be contained 
in and circumscribed by) the spirit of a man; the highest 
divine agents effuse, so to speak, and inspire a temper, 
but do not impart themselves. He has, however, a 
special relation to the martial spirit, which he stirs in 
Menelaos, 2 and which he confers as a gift in the Odyssey 
upon the Pseudodysseus ; but only in conjunction with 
Athene. 3 This may be taken, however, as a sign that 
he was known to some extent within Greece ; in Crete, 
for example. In Greece, too, he is the father of Ascal- 
aphos and Ialmenos; 4 and the wall of Thebes is the 
teichos Areion. 5 Liinemann 6 observes, that Ares 
represents the idea of raw courage. He does not rep- 
resent courage as Homer conceived it. He has no 
skill, resource, or even perseverance in war, whether 
against Athene or against Diomed ; but rather a stupid 



i H. xvii. 210. 
4 II. ii. 512. 



2 II. v. 563. 
s II. iv. 407. 



3 Od. xiv. 199, 216. 
6 Worterbuch in voc. 



298 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



insensibility, which rushes on the spear's point. 1 And, 
when he has felt it, he flies off, and howls under the 
pain : two operations never (I think) permitted by 
Homer to a wounded Greek ; perhaps not even to a 
wounded Trojan. He groans again after his discom- 
fiture by Athene in the Theomachy. 2 

In battle with the Solumoi,Ares is said to slay Isan- 
dros, the son of Bellerophon. This may mean no more 
than that Isandros fell in the war. 3 

Eepresented as dwelling in Olympos, he is unaware 
of what has taken place on the battle-fields of Troas ; 
he learns by accident the death of his son Ascalaphos ; 
and when rushing forth to avenge it, he is arrested by 
Pallas, who strips off his armor, scolds him sharply, 
and replaces him in his seat. 4 She habitually, indeed, 
to use our homely phrase, bullies him. 5 

Thus inferior in action to Athene, he only divides 
with her the prerogative of presiding over war. On 
the Shield of Achilles, the two. are represented 6 as the 
patrons respectively of the two opposing hosts ; and in 
a variety of passages 7 besides that already referred to, 
their common, or rather rival, possession of this field of 
action is exhibited. For example, in the Twentieth 
Iliad, 8 while Athene shouts to urge on the Greeks, 
Ares does the like for the Trojans. 

In the Fifth Iliad, 9 he envelops the fight in darkness: 
but, as if to account for so powerful an operation by a 
deity of his secondary rank, the Poet goes on to say 
that he was fulfilling the orders of Apollo, who had 
bid him incite the Trojans. 

i II. v. 849-863. 2 ii. xx i. 417. 3 n. v i. 203. 

4 II. xv. 110-142. & II. v. 766. 6 II. xviii. 516. 

1 II. r. 430, xvii. 398, xx. 358. 8 48-53. 
9 505-511. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



299 



He was overcome and bound by the youths Otos and 
Ephialtes (whom Apollo conquered) ; and he would 
have perished in his bonds, had not Hermes released 
him, after an imprisonment of thirteen months. 1 Im- 
mortal he is; 2 but, it appears, only just immortal. 

He is thirsty, not of sacrifices in the ordinary way, 
but of human blood. 3 According to Ammianus, 4 the 
Thracians of history propitiated him by sacrificing the 
lives of prisoners. 

So limited are his perceptions, that Pallas, by putting 
on a particular helmet, can prevent his recognizing her. 5 

His flesh is tender, like that of all the gods : but he 
is described principally by bulk and mass. 6 When 
AthenS smites him to the ground, he extends over 
nine pel et lira, or about seven hundred feet, 7 in 
length. . 

On escaping from the net, in the Eighth Odyssey, he 
repairs to Thrace. From thence, with his ideal son 
Terror, he comes forth to make war upon the Ephuroi 
(a race whom their name appears to associate with the 
Greeks), or with the Phleguai. In Thrace clearly was 
his home. Thrace appears to have been known by the 
name of Aria. 8 Berkel connects the two names to- 
gether. 

If, on the one hand, ArSs was not fully established 
as an Hellenic deity, still he is a son of Here, in the 
Olympian family, and there is a lack of special links 
between him and the Trojans. It appears that he 
wavered between the two parties : nay, even that he 

i II. v. 385-391. 2 ib. 901. 3 Ib . 2 89. 

4 xxvii. 4. 5 II. v. 845. 

6 II. ii. 479 ; vii. 208 ; viii. 349. 7 n. xx i, 497. 

8 Steph. Byzant. in voc. Thrake. 



300 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



had promised to take part with the Greeks, and had 
then changed his mind. He is accordingly called turn- 
coat (alloprosallos), 1 and is a special object of the 
wrath of Here, who makes known in Olympos the 
death of his son Ascalaphos, 2 with the hope that he may 
avenge it on the Trojans, and so change sides again. 
This he is evidently about to do, in despite of the pro- 
hibition of Zeus, when Pallas stops him, lest more 
trouble should arise from the wrath of the Sire. When 
he suffers defeat in the Theomachy, Pallas tells him 
it is because the Erinues of his mother Her£ pursue 
him. 3 The whole nation of the Thrakes, however 
(as we now understand Thrace), with whom he is 
specially associated, are among the allies of Troy in 
the War. 4 

It is difficult, from the materials afforded by Homer, 
to trace the god Ar£s up to his origin. But his promi- 
nent place in the Italian mythology renders it probable, 
that his worship may have prevailed among the Pelas- 
gian forerunners of the Hellenic race. Welcker thinks 
that he had had a divine cultus at an early date among 
some race alien to the Greek, from which the Hellenic 
gods proper displaced him, and that there are traces 
of him as a Nature-Power. 5 Both ideas would be veri- 
fied if he could be tracked to a Pelasgian or quasi-Pe- 
lasgian source ; and this too would give a propriety to 
his siding with Troy ; which, however, poetical neces- 
sity went far towards exacting, in order to give even 
the faintest show of equality to the Trojan party in 
Olympos. 

i II. v. 831 2 ii. xv . 100-112. 3 Ii. xxi. 412. 

4 II. ii. 844-846. 5 Gr. Gotterlehre, i. 414. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



301 



Section XI. Hermes. 

The part played by Hermes in the Iliad is secondary. 
His only important manifestation is when, in the 
Twenty-fourth Book, he appears by order of Zeus to 
Priam, under the semblance of a young prince ; and 
attends him, with amiable care, On his way to and from 
the scene of his arduous errand. But this mission is 
neither political nor military. It is only social and 
domestic. It is eminently illustrative of the peculiar 
function of Hermes, which is, to be the god of expe- 
dients, resource, and help ; the accommodating and 
genial god. 1 This character is expressed alike in his 
epithets, such as eriounios 2 and akaketa, 3 and in his 
conduct. His agency is, as a rule, beneficial to those 
with whom he deals : hence he is chosen to be the 
guide of Priam : hence he assures Calypso that he has 
come to her unwillingly at the command of Zeus, 
cautiously alleging, however, the length of way and 
want of provision on the journey, as his reasons. 4 He 
is the person employed to admonish Aigisthos 5 not to 
commit the meditated crimes : a warning, which aimed 
at saving him from vengeance. 

Hermes is the son of Zeus and Maias. 6 He is the 
giver of increase, dotor eaon: 7 and it is perhaps in 
this capacity that Eumaios, the swineherd, consecrates 
to him a seventh portion, at the meal-sacrifice in his 
hut, on the arrival of Odysseus. 8 Like the majority of 
the other gods, he has one or more human children 

1 II. xxiv. 334. 2 R are helper. 

3 Never harmful. 4 Od. v. 99-102. 

5 Od. i. 38. 6 Od. viii. 335 ; xiv. 435. 

i Od. viii. 335. 8 Qd. xiv. 435. 



302 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



born clandestinely : 1 but, whenever we hear of him, 
it is as the giver of some gift, or renderer of some 
service. Yet the idea of concealment inheres in his 
functions. When the question is raised in Olympos 
as to delivering the body of Hector, the first expedient 
is, that Hermes should steal it. 2 Again he steals Ares 
out of his confinement. 3 His prerogatives however 
embrace not only thievery, but also perjury, as it was 
he who conferred both these gifts on Autolucos. 4 Yet 
perhaps, considering his general character of usefulness 
without hurt, we may possibly presume that these ob- 
jectionable faculties were only given for some defensive 
or beneficial end. In Homer, he has no relation to 
industry, or skill in manufacture : these belong to 
Athene and Hephaistos. But' he seems to be the agent 
or envoy of the Olympian assembly : and his office as 
the god of increase, together with his relation to pilfer- 
ing, place him in connection with the business of ex- 
change, at a period when commerce, so beneficial in 
itself, is notwithstanding a near neighbor not only to 
fraud on the one hand, but to violence on the other. 

He never hates, or punishes, or quarrels, or is in- 
censed with any one. Nor is he troubled with self- 
love. Though ranged on the Greek side in the poem, 
and in the Theomachy, he declines the contest with 
Leto, his appointed antagonist, as a wife of Zeus, too 
great for him to cope with*: and tells her she may give 
out that she has worsted him. 5 

In the Fourth Iliad, Zeus chooses Athene^ for the 
mission to Pandaros, to persuade him to break the 



i n. xvi. 181. 
4 Od. xix. 396. 



2 II. xxiv. 24. 
5 II. xxi. 497-501. 



3 II. v. 390. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



303 



covenanted truce. 1 This office would have seemed 
every way more suitable to Hermes. The reason that 
it is not committed to him may probably be, that he 
was unknown in Troy. In the Twenty-fourth Book, 
he describes himself to Priam as a Myrmidon and an 
esquire of Achilles, nor does he announce himself as 
a god until it becomes necessary that he should depart, 
and leave the old King alone within the cantonment 
of the formidable hero. Priam does not then in any 
manner recognize him personally, or address him in his 
divine capacity. 

The functions discharged by Hermes appear to point 
to a connection with the Phoenicians, as the great mer- 
chants of the time. The name of his mother Maias 
is not connected by Homer with Phoenicia, except by 
the negative evidence that, like Dione" the mother of 
Aphrodite, she does not appear in the list of the attach- 
ments of Zeus given in the Fourteenth Iliad, where all 
the intimacies have their scene laid or supposed in 
Greece, Greek traditions alone appearing to be admit- 
ted. In the Hymn to Hermes the gap is supplied, and 
Maias is declared to be the daughter of Atlas, who is 
with Homer a personage entirely Phoenician. 

Again, Hermes manifestly has a personal relation 
with Calypso, 2 who welcomes him as aldoiog rs epilog re ; 3 
terms, which are much beyond the limit of ordinary 
courtesy ; which are employed in the very special case 
of Zeus and Thetis ; 4 and which Here" flatters herself 
she shall deserve at the hands of Okeanqs and Tethus, 
provided she shall succeed in bringing them together 
again. 5 Calypso was the daughter of Atlas : and it 



1 H. iv. 69. 2 Od. v. 88. 

4 II. xxiv. 111. Cf. II. xviii. 394. 



3 Bevered and loved. 
5 IL. xiv. 210. 



304 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



is probable that Maias was her mythological sister, 
and Hermes her nephew. We have another sign of 
the ties between him and Calypso in this, that Odys- 
seus obtained from her the account of the proceedings 
in Olympos about the oxen of the Sun, and that she 
had had it from Hermes. 1 This could hardly be on 
any other footing than that of a mythological relation- 
ship, really indicating an ethnical affinity. He was syste- 
matically worshipped by the people of Scherid before 
retiring to rest. 2 

We find him yet again employed, within the circle 
of the Phoenician traditions, 3 to instruct Odysseus as 
to the means, by which he may safely encounter Kirke" 
and her enchantments. I again use the word Phoeni- 
cian as including, for Homer, what was Egyptian or 
Eastern. 

Other remarkable incidents are recorded of him. 
It was he who, together with Athene, conducted He- 
racles in safety, with the formidable dog, out of Hades ; 4 
and he likewise escorts the souls of the Suitors from 
Ithaca to the Underworld. 5 He, moreover, carried to 
Pelops, from Zeus, the sceptre which Hephaistos had 
wrought. 6 

Hermes is an agent rather than a mere messenger : 
and, as a messenger, he is pretty clearly distinguished 
in this vital respect, that he goes not, like Iris, upon 
the personal errand of Zeus or Her£, but he carries the 
collective resolution of the Olympian Court. 7 His 
general office is best represented by the word diactoros 
or agent, hers by angel os or messenger. He may be 
called the god of intercourse. 

i Od. xiii. 390. 2 od. vii. 137. 3 Od. x. 275-307. 

4 Od. xi. 623-626. 5 Od. xxiv. 1-14. 6 n. n 104. 
7 Od. i. 38, 84. Cf. II. xxiv. 24. 



THE DIVINITIES OP OLYMPOS. 



305 



His very marked name, Argeiphontes, is nowhere 
explained in Homer ; or in Hesiod ; or in the Homeric 
Hymn. It is discussed fully by Welcker: 1 and the 
constructions put upon it tend to connect him with 
the East, and with the astronomic worship. In the 
system of the Persians, as stated by Origen, the seventh 
or mixed metal is assigned to him. 2 The first verse of 
the Twenty-fourth Odyssey connects him with Arcadia 
through Cyllene. Halm finds in the Albanian lan- 
guage words capable (chermes, tourme,) of relation 
to his name. It is quite possible that two or more 
streams of mythological traditions may meet in him ; 
but his dominant relations are evidently Eastern. 

But as this deity, of great importance and highly 
diversified attributes in the later mythology, is of sec- 
ondary consequence in Homer, I pass on. 

Section XII. Artemis. 

We must not be discouraged if, especially in the 
case of a deity of the second order like Artemis, we 
find much difficulty in discerning the precise channel 
through which she reached her actual place in the 
Hellenic mythology, as daughter of Leto, and sister 
of Apollo, with the other attributes attaching to her. 

On the whole, however, it seems that there is much 
truth in the observation of Miiller, who says she was 
worshipped 4 as it were a part of the same deity ' 3 
with Apollo. She is in the main a reflection of her 

1 Gr. Gotterlehre, vol. i. pp. 336 seqq. 

2 Beckmann, Hist, of Inventions, Art. ' Metals.' 

3 Muller's Dorians, vol. ii. ch. 9. The chapter contains much in- 
formation on the worship of Artemis. 

20 



306 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



brother, much in the same manner as, saving the sub- 
stitution (as it may be called) of the sisterly for the 
conjugal relation, Her£ is a reflection of Zeus. The 
relation of atmosphere to earth, which had been recog- 
nized outside of the Olympian scheme, became, under 
the anthropomorphic law of that scheme, the relation 
of King and Father Zeus, to Queen and Mother Here\ 
The affinity of Sun to Moon, acknowledged already as 
divinities in eastern, and probably also in Pelasgian, 
systems of religion, undergoing a like transmutation, 
appears in the Olympian scheme as the relation of the 
brother Apollo to the sister Artemis. For we have 
already seen the reasons for supposing that in Troy 
itself the Sun was worshipped as the far-darting 
Apollo. If there was a Sun-worship there, so in all 
likelihood there was a worship of the Moon. But 
Olympian laws seem not to allow an acknowledgment 
in the action of the Iliad of the relation between 
Apollo and the Sun ; nor, by parity of reasoning, can 
they recognize any relation of Artemis to the Moon. 

That such a relation subsisted out of Greece, we 
may readily suppose. The traditions, on which Homer 
had to employ his plastic power, varied and hetero- 
geneous, were on that very ground the more elastic 
and flexible, partly in things, but especially in names. 
Identity is as hard to follow in them, as it is easy in 
human life. They seem to form, disform, and re-form 
before us, like the squares of colored glass in the ka- 
leidoscope as it is turned about by the hand. One 
group of these traditions, which when associated com- 
pose a nebula, appears before us in severalty, divided 
between the three individualities of Artemis, Perse- 
phone, and Aphrodite. Another form of the sever- 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



307 



ance, wholly Greek in spirit, comes before us in the 
double tradition of the celestial and the earthly or 
sensual Aphrodite ; and to the celestial Aphrodite the 
Artemis of Homer bears no small resemblance. In- 
deed it seems likely that, as Homer found or shaped 
the old Earth-tradition in several forms, of which the 
portion least earthy, and most sublimed, became his 
Here, so probably there may have lain before him a 
variety of forms of the tradition of the Moon-goddess, 
in association with highly varied ascriptions, the most 
ethereal and purest part of which took, we may suppose, 
its place in the Olympian system as his Artemis. 

But the relations of wife and sister respectively, in 
which Here and Artemis are placed, are probable due 
to the anthropomorphic principle, and to that method 
of copying for heaven the things seen and known on 
earth, according to which the Theo-mythology of Homer 
is constructed. And the remarkable participation of 
Artemis in the high prerogatives of Apollo is notably 
like the participation of Here in the prerogatives of 
Zeus. In this participation, this greatness by reflec- 
tion, consists principally the dignity of each goddess. 
The rude material, which as Nature-Powers they re- 
spectively offered to the hand, is thus lighted up with 
an extraordinary splendor. 

The Homeric signs of relation between Artemis and 
the Moon are of the same kind with those of Apollo to 
the Sun ; but fainter in proportion to smaller energies, 
and a more confined activity. The terrible clang of 
the arrows of Apollo is reflected in the rattle of those 
of Artemis. 1 His golden sword is represented in her 



i H. i. 46 ; xvi. 183. 



308 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



golden distaff. 1 She is also golden- throned, and uses 
golden reins. 2 These are epithets suitable to the 
moon. 

Halm finds no root for the name Artemis in the Al- 
banian tongue ; and we cannot in this way trace it to 
the Pelasgian religion. But in ' Charnea,' meaning 
the moon, he detects the Anna Perenna of the Latins, 
of whom Ovid 3 says, e Sunt quibus ha'ec luna est ; ' 
and likewise the Anath or Tanath of Egypt, who is 
taken by some to be the analogue of Artemis. 4 On 
the whole we seem to have a groundwork in the 
scheme of Nature-worship, on which the Homeric 
tradition of Artemis is built, and which places her on 
the Trojan side. 

The great function which in Homer she shares with 
Apollo, is that of being the minister of Death, in the 
double sense of a deliverance or translation, and of 
an infliction penal in its nature. In the first capacity, 
Penelope asks her aid, that she may be set free from 
the persecutions of the Suitors : 5 and in like manner 
she dismisses from life the women, and Apollo the 
men, of the happy island of Suri£, where want and 
sickness are unknown. 6 But she likewise slays Ari- 
adne, for her lapse from chastity in Die ; 7 and avenges 
on the daughters of Niob£ (as Apollo does on the sons) 
the offence of their mother. 8 As the Huntress-queen, 
she is the destroyer of life in animals, and perhaps this 
office was committed to her as an inferior portion of 
the ministry of death, more suitably placed in her 



i II. xx. 70. 2 II. vi. 205 ; ix. 533. 3 Fast. iii. 657. 

4 Hahn. Alban. Stud. pp. 250, 277. 5 Od. xx. 61. 

6 Od. xv. 407. ? Od. xi. 324. 8 n. xx i v . 604-609. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



309 



hands than in those of her brother Apollo ; as if she 
had, so to speak, the leavings of his great offices. 

The inferiority, indeed, of Artemis to Apollo is 
very strongly marked in Homer, although the relation 
of Moon to Sun was most suitably represented in an an- 
thropomorphic religion by placing them as brother and 
sister. In the Fifth Iliad, when Apollo carries iEueas 
to Pergamos, and places the disabled chief in his own 
temple, Leto and Artemis are found there, 1 to nurse 
and restore him ; not in any shrine of their own, nor 
in one common to the family. And again in the Theo- 
machy, Artemis, contending with Her£, is subjected to 
sad indignity, and actually whipped with her own bow 
and arrows. 2 She is here treated with none of the 
special respect that is given, not only to Apollo and 
Athen£, but to Leto. This convinces me on further 
reflection 3 that her Olympian relation to Apollo is 
more probably based upon physical facts, than upon 
participation in the higher traditions. 

Her agency, however, is ubiquitous ; perhaps in vir- 
tue of facts belonging to the same order ; yet it would 
be singular, if her worship obtained among Hellenes 
earlier than that of the Sun. So, however, it seems to 
have been. A generation at least before the War, 
Artemis is worshipped in Caludon, and she sends the 
Boar thither to avenge the lack of sacrifice. 4 We are 
thus enabled to conjecture that in this instance, even 
before the hand of Homer was applied to mythologic 
manipulation, the Hellenic mind had done its work, 
and she was fairly impersonated in the capacity which 
we find that she fills in the Poems. We meet her in 



1 II. v. 445. 

3 Studies on Homer, vol. ii. pp. 110, 144. 



2 II. xxi. 489-496. 
4 II. ix. 533-542. 



310 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Troas, where she taught Scamandrios 1 to hunt ; she 
is invoked in Ithaca by Penelope ; 2 her part in the 
legend of the daughters of Pandareos belongs probably 
to Crete; and we have seen her agency in Suri£, and 
in Die. 3 Again, in OrtugiS she took the life of Orion. 
And the Artemis of Homer has no relation to any one 
or more places in particular. 

Apart from the ministry of death, and from this ap- 
parent attribute of omnipresence, her powers, in regard 
both to Nature and to the mind, are those of the lower 
or secondary order of the Olympian Court. But, in 
the matter of personal beauty, she is the rival of 
Aphrodite ; and here she appears to absorb that part 
of the tradition which afterwards went by the name of 
the heavenly Aphrodite. One most frequent illustra- 
tion of great beauty is a comparison with Aphrodite the 
golden ; and it is to her that Achilles refers 4 as the 
model of loveliness. But the incomparable Nausicaa, 
who appears to be the poet's ideal of youthful beauty 
combined with purity and excellence, 5 is likened by 
Odysseus to Artemis in countenance, bearing, and 
stature. And again, in the case of the daughters of 
Pandareos, while it is Here who confers upon them 
beauty of feature, and Aphrodite simply purveys food 
for them, it is Artemis who gives them stature, which 
I suppose to include all that relates to beauty of figure. 
It is noteworthy that stature is never mentioned (I 
think) in connection with Aphrodite, and I suppose it 
therefore to be in the province of Artemis. 

While this attribute marks the point at which the 
traditions appropriated to her touch upon those of 



1 II. v. 49-52. 
4 H. ix. 389. 



2 Od. xx. 61, 71. 
5 Od. vi. 150. 



3 Od. y. 123. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



311 



Aphrodite, on the other hand the epithet ayvrj, the 
severely pure, 1 seems to indicate her point of contact 
with Persephone, the Queen of Hades. The two forms 
were, as we know, afterwards fused into one. 

Section XIII. Persephone. 

Persephone the Queen of Hades is called by Homer 
the 6 severely pure ' the 4 majestic ' (ayav//), and 

the 'terrible' (e,7toavr[). And she represents what we 
might reasonably expect from her position as Queen in 
the Underworld : a mixture of Pelasgic and of Eastern 
traditions. Of the former, because all the Pelasgic 
Nature-Powers had been disposed of by carrying them 
into that nether sphere ; of the latter, because the 
site of the Underworld of Homer was in the East, 
the entrance to it by the point of the rising of the 
Sun. 2 

She is represented as ruling together with A'idoneus, 
and by no means as merely his wife. Introduced to- 
gether with him into the Legend of Phoenix by his 
father, and also by Althaia, 3 she seems even to be 
charged in chief with the sovereignty. She gathers 
the Women-shades for Odysseus, and she disperses 
them. It is she who, as he fears, may send forth the 
head of Gorgo should he tarry over long ; who may 
have deluded him with an Eidolon or shadow in lieu 
of a substance ; who endows Teiresias with the func- 
tions of a Seer. 4 On the shores of Ocean, just before 
the point of descent in the far East, are the groves of 

i Od. v. 123; xviii. 202 ; xx. 71. 2 Od. xii. 1-4. 

3 II. ix. 457-569. 4 Od. .xi. 226, 385, 634, 213 ; and x. 494. 



312 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Persephone. Aidoneus does no personal act in the 
Poems, except that with her he executes the impreca- 
tory vow of the father of Phoenix ; 1 and that he trem- 
bles lest the crust of earth should be riven by 
earthquake, during the battle of the gods. 2 Notwith- 
standing his high rank as the brother of Zeus, she is 
the principal, and he is the secondary figure in the 
weird scenery of the Eleventh Odyssey. 

It seems very probable that she represents that old 
Pelasgian tradition of the awful Damsel, which had, 
as we know especially from the mythological itinerary 
of Pausanias, such extraordinary longevity and power 
in the Greek religion. Together with this, we have to 
consider 1. her Eastern site, 2. her gift to Teiresias, 
alone among the dead ; connecting her on the one 
hand with Apollo, the God of foreknowledge, but 
on the other with the Phoenicians, and with the 
Eastern associations of which they, were the chan- 
nels. 

The name Persephone appears to attach itself by 
etymology to other names in the Homeric Poems ; all 
of which are Eastern in their associations. Perse, the 
daughter of Okeanos, is also the wife of Helios, and 
the mother of Kirke, who dwells in Aiaie\ Each of 
the three points of contact thus established is a link 
to the East. Perseus, the founder of the dynasty 
which precedes the Pelopids, is the son of Zeus and 
Danae, a parentage which, as we have already found, 
we may properly consider as implying a foreign, and 
an Eastern, origin. In the person of Perseus, the son 
of Nestor, 3 the name is continued in the Neleid House, 



1 II. ix. 456, 457. 



2 II. xx. 61-65. 



3 Od. iii. 414. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



313 



which appears to have been of Phoenician extraction. 
The national designation of Achaians appears also not 
improbably to connect itself with the Persian race 
through the name Archaimenidai and otherwise, 1 
which may not improbably have contributed an ele- 
ment to the formation of the Greek nation. 

Our first historical notice of that race is about the 
middle of the ninth century before Christ, 2 when Shal- 
maneser II found them in South-western Armenia. 
This point approximates to the region, in which the 
imagination of Homer placed the shadowy dwelling of 
Persephone. 

In the later tradition, she becomes united with Arte- 
mis, and so related to Apollo ; a relationship of which 
perhaps we have a single Homeric trace in her com- 
mand over the knowledge of the future. 

Section XI Y. Aphrodite. 

The Aphrodite of Homer was a goddess, for she is 
the daughter of Zeus, and of Diond, whose residence 
is in Olympos, and who belongs to the divine order. 3 
She is also herself expressly stated to belong to it. 4 
But it does not appear that she had as yet come 
to be a goddess of the Hellenic religion properly so 
called. 

In order to estimate her position in the scheme of 
Homer, the following circumstances should be con- 
sidered : — 

1. There is no trace of her worship, or of any influ- 

1 See Studies on Homer, vol. i. p. 557. 

2 Rawlinson's Ancient Monarchies, ii. 374 ; iii. 349. 

3 II. v. 370, 381, 383. * II. v. 337-342 ; xx. 105. 



314 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



ence exercised by her over mortals, either in Greece, or 
among the Greeks. 

2. She is never once exhibited by Homer in a favor- 
able light ; sometimes in a neutral one ; more com- 
monly in an odious or contemptible point of view. 

3. Though herself a model of personal beauty, 1 she 
was not the goddess of beauty, inasmuch as she had 
not the power to confer the gift. Beauty is not in- 
cluded in the properties 2 conveyed by the Kestos ; and 
it is Here who endows the orphan daughters of Pan- 
dareos with beauty, while Aphrodite has no other office 
assigned to her in their rearing, than supplying them 
with food, and preferring to Zeus, when they are grown 
up, the prayer that they may marry. 3 

4. She is wounded by Diomed, and is apparently 
destitute alike of the powers of resistance, of vengeance, 
and of endurance. We can hardly suppose that a 
deity exhibited in a light so contemptible, as is Aphro- 
dite in the Battle of the Fifth Iliad, was as yet an object 
of Hellenic worship. 4 

5. Her helplessness after receiving her wound from 
Diomed is remarkable. While Ares rides spontaneously 
to heaven, 5 Aphrodite is led out of the battle by Iris, 6 
and makes a petition to her brother Ares for the loan 
of his chariot and horses, that she may by their means 
be carried to Olympos. 

In the Lay of the Net, she is reported as going from 
Olympos to Paphos without aid : 7 possibly because this 
is a descent, not an ascent ; or more probably because 
in a Syrian episode her rank would be more fully 
recognized than in an Hellenic poem. 



i II. ix. 389. 

3 Od. xx. 66-75. Cf. II. v. 429. 
& II. v. 864-870. 6 II. v. 353. 



2 II. xiv. 198, 215. 
4 II. v. 311-380. 
1 Od. viii. 362. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



315 



6. No place is assigned to her, even on the losing 
side, in the Theomachy, which determines or ushers 
in the issue of the Iliad. And this is the more remark- 
able, because a fifth deity is wanting to make up a 
number equal to the five deities of the Greeks ; and 
Leto, who is elsewhere in the Poems a perfectly mute 
person age, is introduced in order to fill it. 

7. The only place where she is named among the 
Olympian family, is in the Lay of the Net, a tale 
apparently of Phoenician importation, and of Syrian 
origin. She bears the name of Cypris ; and her place 
of abode is Cyprus, where were her altars, and her glebe 
or domain. 1 She was therefore worshipped in that 
island ; and we may trace her worship as far westward 
as Cythera, from the following circumstances : first, she 
is twice called KvdeQaiu; 2 and secondly, KvO^qul are 
called £aOsot, an epithet which always indicates the 
special relation of the place to some deity. Her relation 
to Paris 3 proves that she was in some manner acknowl- 
edged in Troas ; and the taunt of Helen respecting 
her supposed favorites in Meonia and Phrygia is to be 
taken as showing that she was also recognized as a 
deity in those regions. In effect she was an Asiatic 
deity ; and her name and worship were crossing the sea 
by steps towards the Greek Peninsula. But she must 
have been of small account in Asia Minor, or she could 
hardly have failed to find a place in the Theomachy. 

8. The power of this goddess over external nature 
is extremely limited. The greatest manifestation of it 
is where she 6 with ease ' draws Paris out of the fight, 



i Od. viii. 362. 2 Od. viii. 288 ; xviii. 193. 

3 II. iii. 380-382. 



316 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



wrapping him in vapor. 1 In the Fifth Book, it is when 
she is slyly dragging off iEneas, covered with her robe, 
that Diomed pursues and wounds her, 6 knowing that 
she was an effeminate or strengthless deity.' 2 

She is however invested with a certain superintend- 
ence of marriage in its physical aspect ; and in this 
capacity she sends to Andromache the nuptial gift of 
her hood or head-band. 3 

Athene, taunting her upon her wound, makes the 
supposition 4 that she got it in undressing some Greek 
woman that she had persuaded to elope with one of 
her beloved Trojans. Nay, Helen also bitterly re- 
proaches her, advising her to cease altogether from 
pretending to divinity ; and Aphrodite, in the Third 
Iliad, only overcomes her by the violence of her threats. 5 
From these it appears, if indeed proof were wanting, 
that this character, odious on the side of lawless indul- 
gence, has its base in simple appetite, and in no degree 
carries the softening accompaniments of gentleness or 
compassion. 

In the Odyssey it is contrived that the Suitors, before 
they are put to death, shall offer gifts to Penelop£ ; 
perhaps by way of partial requital for the waste of the 
substance of Odysseus. With this view, the Queen 6 
issues from her chamber, like to Artemis or golden 
Aphrodite. Aphrodite is introduced here, because pas- 
sion was the motive of the Suitors. But the deity, at 
whose suggestion Penelope thus adorned herself, was 
Pallas. Had Aphrodite been worshipped in Greece, 
this office surely would have fallen to her. It is yet 



i II. iii. 380. 

3 II. v. 429; xxii. 470. 

5 II. iii. 413-417. 



2 II. v. 331. ' 
4 II. v. 422-425. 
6 Od. xvii. 37. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



317 



more noteworthy, that the whole design is executed by 
Pallas. Penelope is lulled to sleep ; and then Pallas 
applies ambrosion to her face, 6 such as Aphrodite 
uses when she goes among the Graces.' But Aphrodite 
herself is excluded from the entire process. 

Even in the Lay of the Net; apparently a legend of 
the Eastern mythology, the Poet seems to intend to 
make the guilty pair ridiculous by sending them off, 
when released, so rapidly and in silence. 1 

9. She is never invested with any of the higher 
attributes, such as foreknowledge, omnipresence, or 
command over the mind of man. Her only power 
seems to be that of stimulating passion. 2 

10. We now know that the planetary worship of the 
Assyrians was brought by the Phoenicians into Greece, 
and that each deity w r as associated with a particular 
metal. We find in Cyprus, the land of copper, with 
a Phoenician colony, the worship of Aphrodite. We 
may safely then refer the origin of this Olympian per- 
sonage to the Assyrian mythology. 

The local indications of her worship, as proceeding 
from the East, are in accordance with the traditions 
which under the names of Astarte, Ashtoreth, Mylitta, 
Mitra, exhibit to us a similar character as held in 
honor there. The marriage with Hephaistos bears a 
similar witness; the more remarkable, because it is 
only recognized in the mythology of the Outer world, 
drawn from the Phoenicians, while in the Iliad he is 
the suitor of Charis. Aphrodite, however, is placed by 
Homer in relation with the Charites, Eastern person- 
ages, whose name corresponds with the Sanscrit Harits, 



i Od. viii. 300. 



* II. xiv. 215-217 ; xxiv. 30. 



318 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



meaning originally 4 bright,' and afterwards the horses 
of the dawn. 1 In very late mythology, Aphrodite; ap- 
pears as the daughter. of Poseidon, 2 and thus acquires 
a new note of Eastern origin. 

In historic Greece, we find the double tradition of the 
heavenly and the promiscuous Aphrodite. It would 
seem as though any elements of the former character, 
known to Homer, were assigned by him to his chaste 
Artemis, the rival in beauty of his Aphrodite. The 
pure tradition was, according to the view of Max 
Miiller, the original basis of the character of Aphrodite ; 
and he thinks that it was 'afterwards debased by an 
admixture of Syrian mythology.' 3 He gives to this 
word his favorite meaning of the 'dawn.' Some old 
traditions however connect Aphrodite as Astarte with 
the Moon. 4 There has been therefore an intermixture 
of the traditions, which ultimately distributed them- 
selves between Artemis, Aphrodite, and Persephone" ; 
and there is a certain correspondence of the two first, 
as we find them in Homer, with the vulgar and the 
heavenly Aphrodite of later times respectively. 

Of the name there seems to be no sign in the 
Albanian tongue, which brings down to us so much 
of the old speech of the Pelasgoi. But the root of 
the name Venus is found in the Gegian branch of the 
language. 5 

1 Max Miiller, Lect. on Language, Second Series, p. 370. 

2 Pausanias, Corinthiaca. 

3 Lectures, Second Series, p. 373. 

4 Hahn, Albanesische Studien, p. 250. ' Wir glauben diese Verbin- 
dung mit dem in so vielen Spracben dem Hahnrei zukommenden 
Hornern zusammen stellen zu diirfen.' p. 251. See Smith, Diet. 
Bibb, Art. Asbtoreth. , 

5 Halm, ibid. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



319 



Dion£, the mother of Aphrodite, resides in Olympos. 
Homer affords us no means of tracing her origin or 
functions ; but from other evidence we have been ena- 
bled to interpret her as a Nature-Power of the Pelas- 
gian worship. If this is so, then probably we are to 
consider her motherhood to be assigned to her, not in 
virtue of that Syrian character of Aphrodite, which we 
trace in the South, but of the place which Aphrodite 
(or Venus) appears to have held in the Trojan system, 
and therefore in the Pelasgian cultus of the Nature- 
Powers. 

Section XT. Dionusos. 

The traditions of Dionusos in Homer are as dark as 
they are slight. On the one hand he is the son of 
Semele : and we have no case in the Homeric Theogony 
where a deity is born of a woman : but Semele is men- 
tioned in the list given by Zeus among the mortal 
mothers of his children, who stand separate from 
the goddess mothers. She comes between the un- 
named mother of Minos, and Alcmen£ ; 1 and the birth 
of Dionusos thus appears to be parallel with that of 
Heracles. Dionusos is, however, called in this passage 
' a joy to mortals ; ' which may of itself faintly seem to 
sever him from the race. Neither is there in the 
Poems any clearly divine act assigned to him. The 
Homeric Hymn to Hermes treats Semele as the 
daughter or descendant of Kadmos. 2 

But on the other hand there is a great resemblance 
between the good offices of Metis to him and to 
Hephaistos. 3 When the terrible Lucourgos attacks 



i II. xiv. 323-325. 2 v. 57. 

3 See supra, Sect. Hephaistos. 



320 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



and scourges his nurses, he trembling takes refuge 
in the sea ; and Thetis receives him in her bosom. 1 
This is confirmed indirectly by the Odyssey, 2 which 
represents him as the giver to that goddess of the 
golden urn which she used for the ashes of Achilles ; 
doubtless in requital for her services, which are 
thoroughly in Keeping with her character as the great 
mediatress in matters respecting contrasted or com- 
peting worships. 

The conclusive test, however, is found in this, that 
the recital concerning. Lucourgos is offered to illustrate 
a class of cases where outrage is offered by mortals to 
deities ; and the scourging of his nurses is treated 
as an offence to himself, for which, accordingly, not 
however by him, but by Zeus, Lucourgos was smitten 
with blindness, and then cut off prematurely. 3 Homer 
must therefore be understood to include him in the 
phrase 4 gods of heaven.' 

In the Odyssey we have a probable sign of his wor- 
ship. Ariadne is put to death in Di£ 7 supposed to be 
Naxos, by Artemis, when Theseus is carrying her to 
Athens. Artemis does this 4 upon the testimony of 
Dionusos.' 4 The only probable construction of these 
words which offers itself is, that Theseus landed with 
Ariadne in Naxos, as Paris had landed with Helen in 
CranaS, and that Dionusos procured the intervention 
of Artemis to avenge a meditated profanation ; which 
presumes that the island, or some place in it, was 
sacred to him. It is also likely, that the epithet qyadEov 
applied to the Nusei'an mount, means that it was sacred 
to him as a god. 



i H. vi. 136. 

* II. vi. 129-140. 



2 Od. xxiv. 74. 
4 Od. xi. 321-325. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



321 



Nagelsbach observes, 1 tbat Homer places neither 
him nor Demeter in Olympos by any distinct recital 
or declaration. But in both cases the recognition 
of deity, coupled with the personal relation to Zeus, 
appears to make good the title. 

At the same time, I have pointed out an incon- 
sistency which I do not know how to rectify. The 
traditions are not closely pieced together. 

What is most clear about Dionusos in Homer is, 
first, that his worship was extremely recent ; secondly, 
that it made its appearance in Thrace, 2 to which 
belongs the Nusei'an mountain ; thirdly, that it was 
violently opposed on its introduction, a fact of which 
we have other records, as for example, in the Bacchae 
of Euripides. 

Lucourgos, who resisted and punished it, was the 
son of Druas ; and Druas was alive and a warrior in 
the youth of Nestor. Consequently, Dionusos was an 
infant, that is, his worship was in its infancy, not more 
than two generations before the War of Troy. The 
Hymn addressed to Dionusos describes how Tursenians 
found him on the shore, and brought him over sea. 
The coloring of this legend is Phoenician ; as is that 
of the legend, if such there were, that gave him the isle 
of Naxos as the seat of his worship. It is also on the 
sea shore that he appears, according to Homer ; and it 
is in Thrace, where there would seem to have been 
Phoenician manufactures of metal. Again, he obtains 
a work of art, probably Phoenician, from Hephaistos, 3 
just as does Phaidimos, the king of the Sidonians. 4 



i Horn. Theol. p. 115. 
3 Od. tsxiv. 74. 



21 



2 Nagelsbach, p. 9. 
4 Od. iv. 615-619. 



322 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



And the name of Semele 1 itself, according to general 
traditions, supports the Phoenician association thus 
established at a variety of points. 

We cannot perhaps treat the Dionusos of Homer as 
the discoverer of wine, and father of its use, in Greece ; 
for it is universal and familiar, while he appears to be 
but local and as yet strange. The novel feature, which 
connects itself with his name, seems to be the use of 
wine by women ; and the effect produced, in an extra- 
ordinary and furious excitement, which might well 
justify not only jealousy, but even forcible resistance to 
demoralizing orgies. It seems then, as if this usage 
was introduced by immigrants of a race comparatively 
wealthy and luxurious, and was resisted by, or on behalf 
of, the older and simpler population. 

The later account of Hesiod makes Dionusos the 
husband of Ariadne*, who was the daughter of Minos. 
The poet of Ascra thus places him within the circle of 
Phoenician traditions. 

Though 'Homer has represented this personage as a 
god, and though, as we see, traces of his worship are not 
wanting, yet the human maternity might possibly indi- 
cate that we should do best to regard him as a deified 
mortal, rather than as a god from the beginning of his 
existence. In this case, we are to suppose that the 
fascination of the usage he introduced not only proved 
so powerful as to overrule all opposition, but likewise 
generated a halo which was reflected on his birth, and 
caused his deification by a process more rapid than that 
which took effect upon Heracles or the Tyndarids. In 
the later time, greater consistency was given to the 
legend by a parallel deification of Semele, his mother. 



a Hymn to Dionusos, v. 57. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



323 



Homer has attached no ennobling epithet or circum- 
stance of dignity to the name of Dionusos, unless we 
so regard the eulogy of Zeus 1 under an excess of ex- 
citement. The Poet acts in this case as in the cases 
of Ar£s and Aphrodite ; since he has no reverence for 
either drunkenness, or violence, or lust. 

Section XVI. Helios, or the Sun. 

It is sometimes stated, that Helios, or the Sun, does 
not appear as a god in the Iliad, but only in the 
Odyssey. This is not so. As far as the Odyssey is 
concerned, he appears only in the Outer, not in the 
Inner, world. In the Iliad his personality is undeni- 
able, though very faint. The Sun hearing all, as well 
as seeing all, is certainly a person. 2 

Again, all will remember the long day of the Iliad, 
with the close of which the successes of the Trojans 
were to end. When the appointed moment came, at 
the command of Here" the Sun went, unwillingly, 3 to his 
rest beside the Ocean stream. 

Here then he is a person, though in the background. 
In the Odyssey, he reappears with more marked effect. 
In the Lay of Demodocos, it is he who first makes 
known to Hephaistos the intimacy of Ares with Aphro- 
dite, 4 and then undertakes to act as spy upon the 
guilty couple. The Island of Thrinakie, placed by 
Homer not far from the entrance to the Euxine, is 
his island. 5 Here are his oxen, and his sheep, tended 
by the care of his daughters, whose mother was 

1 II. xiv. 325. 2 n. in. 277. 3 II. xviii. 239. 

4 Od. viii. 270, 302. 5 Qd. xii. 127, 261, 274. 



324 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Neaira, and who were called Phaethusa and Lampetie*. 1 
These animals the crew of Odysseus had been warned 
on no account to molest. Under the direst pressure 
of famine, 2 however, they at length slew certain of 
the oxen ; having first vowed that on their return to 
Ithaca 3 they would build a temple to the Sun and store 
it richly ; a sign, it may be remembered, that such an 
edifice would be a novelty in the island. Portents, 
such as we nowhere else encounter in the Poems, wait 
upon the deed ; the hides of the animals creep about, 
and the flesh, even when roasted, lows upon the spits. 4 
Notwithstanding the Sun's all-seeing function, it is 
Lampetie who carries him the news. It seems possible, 
however, as Odysseus was asleep, that we are to under- 
stand the deed to have been done by night. The god 
makes his complaint in the court of the Immortals, 
to which he is thus proved to belong; 5 and he de- 
mands reparation for the loss of his oxen, with whom 
4 he disported himself night and morning.' Failing it, 
he declares that he will thenceforward shine in Hades. 
Zeus at once promises to destroy the crew at sea, which 
is done accordingly. 6 

The extraordinary sanctity ascribed to these oxen is 
wholly alien to the genius of the Greek mythology. 
But when we turn to the East, and observe that Phoenicia 
was impregnated with Egyptian traditions, we find the 
sacredness of the ox, and its relation to the Sun, indi- 
cated in the consecration of Apis to Osiris ; while the 
function of the ox in agriculture also falls in with the 
earlier form of the religion, which appears to have 



i Od. xii. 132. 2 Od. xii. 330, 353. 3 Od. xii. 345. 

4 Od. xii. 394. 5 Od. xii. 377. 6 Od. xii. 403-419. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



325 



regarded Isis as the land, or. passive principle, and 
Osiris as the Nile-god, who taught to the Egyptians the 
use of the plough. 

And again, we find in the temple of Jerusalem, for 
the erection of which Solomon called in the aid of 
Phoenician workmen, the forms of twelve oxen, 1 sup- 
porting a brazen sea. 2 These were made by King 
Hiram of Tyre ; and they symbolize at once the Egyp- 
tian religion, with other Oriental forms of fable, and 
the maritime pursuits of the Phoenicians. 

It is also remarkable, that the use of the ox for meat 
appears to cease in the Outer world of the Odyssey. 
In the land of the Cyclops, we find only sheep and 
goats. And it is with mutton only that Kirke stocks 
the vessel of Odysseus. 

All these indications agree together. In other re- 
spects, too, Helios is marked as an Eastern god. He is 
the father of Aietes, and of Kirk£, dwelling near the 
Eastern Okeanos ; 8 and the island of Aiaie" is indicated 
as the place of his rising. 4 The fact of his sporting with 
the oxen night and morning goes far to show that 
Homer did not think the earth a plane, but round, 
perhaps as upon a cylinder, and believed that the West 
and East were in contact. But only in the East 
does he give the Sun a dwelling. Aietes, the son 
of Helios, carries the exclusively Phoenician epithet 

Of oloOCfQCQV. 

Further, we may notice that, as long as the Voyage 
of Odysseus is in the West and North, we hear noth- 
ing of the Sun. Poseidon rules in the land of the 



i 1 Kings vii. 24, 25, 44. 
3 Od. x. 138. 



2 1 Kings vii. 13. 
4 Od. xii. 4. 



326 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Cyclops, stirs the northern sea into a tempest, and 
is supreme in Scherie. It is in Aiaie, and Thrinaki^, 
that we are brought into contact with this deity, and 
both these islands appear to lie in Homer's East. 

Thus the Sun, by many concurrent signs, is marked 
out to us as an Eastern deity. There is not in the 
Odyssey the faintest trace of his identification with 
Apollo. The traditions respecting him were doubt- 
less conveyed by the Phoenicians ; but we cannot say 
that they were Phoenician in themselves. The division 
of regions to which I have adverted, seems to point to 
Poseidon as the god of Phoinikes proper, and to Helios 
as the god of the Canaanitish population of Syria to the 
Eastward. Among them it is not improbable that, at 
the period represented by Homer, the Egyptian belief 
extensively prevailed, but Assyrian elements may also 
enter into this conception. 

In the Iliad, though not in the Odyssey, we have a 
sign of the process which finally incorporated the tra- 
ditions of Apollo with the Sun ; while the humanitarian 
spirit of the Olympian system of Homer seems to have 
resisted the operation. The plague of the First 9 Book 
can hardly represent any thing else than the miasma 
rising from the marshes of the Troad, and the arrows 
of Apollo are the rays of the sun causing the moisture 
to evaporate. We find a family of epithets applied to 
Apollo, which evidently glance at the solar properties : 
Hekaergos, Hekatebolos, Hekebolos. It is some- 
what remarkable that these epithets, which are only 
used twenty -five times in the other forty-seven books of 
the Poems, are met twelve times in the First Iliad 
alone. It is also likely that the epithet Phoibos may 
glance at the relation between Apollo and the Sun, al- 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



327 



ready recognized beyond the borders of Greece, and 
possibly also in the old Pelasgian religion of the Penin- 
sula. Again we have the term Lnkabas applied to the 
year. It is probable that in the religion of Troy, where 
Nature-worship seems to have prevailed more largely, 
Apollo and the Sun were identified, and that this union 
made it convenient for the Poet to place Apollo on the 
Trojan side in the war. Whilst Poseidon built the 
walls of Troy for King Laomedon, Apollo fed his oxen ; 
and we have seen the close relation between these ani- 
mals and the worship of the Sun. And this inter- 
pretation accounts for what otherwise would be most 
difficult to explain : I mean the fact that Helios does 
not appear in the Theomachy, nor does he under that 
name take part in the war, though his inclination to- 
wards the Trojans is plainly declared. Troy was prob- 
ably a sort of meeting-point for Greek and Asiatic 
systems. But in the Phoenician or Syrian mythology 
of the Outer world, Apollo and Helios can appear to- 
gether, because the Eastern conception of the latter 
ran no risk of being confounded in the Greek mind 
with the purely anthropomorphic idea of the true Ho- 
meric Apollo. 

Section XYII. Hebe. 

HebS is a deity, whose offices are very clearly set 
forth, but whom we can scarcely consider as having a 
perceptible root in any tradition beyond the circle of 
the Greek mythology. 

She is the Cup-bearer, who pours out nectar for the 
gods. 1 She puts together the parts of the chariot of 

i II. iv. 2. 



328 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Here, though Here herself yokes the horses to it, be- 
fore her descent to the field of battle. 1 She performs 
the offices of the bath for Ares, after he has been 
healed by Paieon. 2 Again, we find her in the Eleventh 
Odyssey, as the celestial bride of Heracles, and in an 
obelized verse, as the daughter of Zeus and Here\ 3 

Her offices are exclusively Olympian; and she is 
nowhere brought into relations with our mortal state ; 
one sign among many that she is probably to be re- 
garded as a purely ideal conception. 

Her name in Greek expresses youth adult, or full 
age just attained. Her marriage with Heracles appears 
to signify that the divine gift of an unending youth is 
imparted to him when he reaches Olympos. 4 Homer 
assigns to her the epithet callisphuros, prettily 
ankled, which he only gives to those who are to be 
understood as youthful persons; Danae, Ino, and Mar- 
pessa. 5 

She may well be conceived as. the daughter of Zeus 
in that general sense, according to which he is the 
father of divinities in general; and thus it must be, in 
all likelihood, that the Muses, the Hours, and the 
Nymphs in general are his daughters. But these per- 
sonages are not daughters of Her£, who has but few 
children, and those due apparently to special tradi- 
tions. In truth she expresses the idea of youth, 6 and 
is perhaps but a thought seized and personified. 
There is no note in Homer of her worship on earth, 
which however is mentioned by Strabo and Pausanias : 

i II. v. 722, 731. 2 ii. v . 905. 3 od. xi. 602-604. 

4 Hes. Theog. 944-955. Ov. Met. ix. 400. 

5 II. xiv. 319 ; ix. 557. Od. v. 333. 

6 Nagelsbach, Horn. Theol. p. 41. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



329 



and Halm finds no trace of her in the Albanian 
language. 

It is the distinct and clear, though simple, account 
given by Homer of her functions, which seems to give 
her a place in the Olympian court upon one of the 
twenty thrones of Hephaistos. 



Slightly as her outline is drawn, we cannot refuse 
to reckon Themis among the ordinary, members of the 
Olympian Court, for the simple reason that we find 
her actually installed there. When, in the absence of 
Zeus, Here enters the company of the Immortals, and 
they rise in honor of her, 1 it is from Themis, who came 
first to meet her, that she accepts the cup of greeting. 
This is evidently because she had been presiding : for 
Here, who is troubled at the view, invites her to con- 
tinue to preside. 2 

Again, in the Twentieth Iliad, all the deities, includ- 
ing the minor Nature-Powers (whom Homer probably 
recognizes as divine because they continued to hold 
their ground in local worship), are invited to the 
Great Assembly which is to decide finally the fate of 
Troy : and it is Themis who summons them. 3 

In the Second Odyssey, Telemachos describes him- 
self as making his prayer to Zeus, and to Themis, 4 
who collects and dissolves public assemblies generally. 

Nevertheless, I apprehend we are not to look for her 
origin in any foreign traditions, but simply to regard 
her as a creation of the Hellenic mind, and probably 



Section XYIII. Themis. 



i II. xv. 85. 

3 II. XX. 4. 



2 II. xv. 95. 
4 Od. ii. 68, 69. 



330 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



of the mind of our Poet himself. Like Hebe she rep- 
resents, in the main, the deification of an impersonated 
idea. 1 

In reference to terrestrial affairs, the name Themis 
signifies civil right, and is the basis on which are 
founded the relations of the whole political and social 
order. If Olympos was to be fashioned into a quasi- 
common wealth, such a personage could hardly be dis- 
pensed with in its formation, among a race with whom 
the political spirit was so strong as among the Greeks 
of the heroic age. 

Even Hestie, who represents the principle of the 
family order, in the same way as Themis represents 
the groundwork of the State, though she is not imper- 
sonated by Homer, yet is at the least on her way to 
impersonation, and attains fully to it after his time. 
She was less necessary to the theogonic scheme of the 
Poet ; for, though the family is involved in the Olym- 
pian arrangements, it does not embrace the whole of 
them, whereas Olympos gives the complete picture of a 
Court and a Polity. 

Hahn 2 derives the name of Themis from dep, 4 I 
speak,' and observes that the statue of this deity 
was placed over against the bema of the orators in 
Athens. 

Section XIX. Paieon. 

In the Fifth Iliad, Dione recites that when Aides, 
wounded by Heracles, repaired to Olympos, Paieon 
(or Paian) applied anodyne drugs to his shoulder, 
and healed him. 3 It is evident that the presence of 

1 Welcker, Gr. Gotterlehre, i. 700. 

2 Alban. Studien, p. 253. 3 H v. 395-402. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



331 



this deity there, as the healer, was regarded by the 
Poet as habitual ; for when Ar£s has been wounded 
by Diomed, and appears in the palace of Zeus, his 
father, after rebuking him, commands Paieon 1 to heal 
him, which accordingly is done forthwith, as by one at 
hand. 

In the Fourth Odyssey, Helen, after using the drug, 
which produces the effect of opium, and may indeed 
be opium, states that she obtained it from the Egyp- 
tian Poludamna, wife of Thon ; 2 and adds that every 
Egyptian is eminently a physician, since they are of 
the race of Paieon. 

Apollo is a healer as well as Paieon : but while 
Paieon heals by instrumental causes after the manner 
of a man, Apollo heals Glaucos immediately, as by a 
divine action. 3 

The Phaiakes are called angchitheoi, near to di- 
vine, because the royal house of Alkinoos is descended 
from Poseidon. Something like this may be meant 
with respect to the Egyptians and Paieon : or just 
possibly they may be called children of Paieon for no 
other reason than their medical skill, without actually 
implying that the traditions relating to the person of 
Paieon were Egyptian. 

But the word Paieon, which is the name of this 
deity, is also twice used in the Iliad for a hymn : first 
for the hymn of purgation, addressed to Apollo, after 
the offence of the First Book has been expiated ; sec- 
ondly for the hymn of triumph sung by the Greek 
soldiers over the lifeless body of Hector. 4 



l II. v. 899. 

3 See supra, sect. viii. 



2 Od. iv. 227 seqq. 
4 H. i. 473 ; xxii. 391. 



332 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



A singular relation is thus established between 
Paieon and Apollo, somewhat like that between the 
Sun and the same deity ; as though Homer had not 
been willing to treat as amalgamated, or even had actu- 
ally severed into two personages traditions which had 
already, and elsewhere, been combined ; for the reason 
that parts of them did not seem to be of sufficient 
elevation to suit the rest, and to be proper for the 
equipment of so gorgeous a figure as his Apollo. 

The name paian became subsequently the estab- 
lished name of those Hymns to Apollo, which were 
sung in connection with victory and deliverance, espe- 
cially, as it seems, upon a completed act of purifi- 
cation. 1 

Welcker observes that, even down to' a late epoch, 
the separate personality of Paieon had not alto- 
gether been submerged, as Cicero mentions a statue 
to him. 2 

It is however possible that he may be, like Hebe, 
a purely ideal personage, not rooted in former or in 
foreign tradition, and representing in a physical way 
the office of healing in Olympos itself, as Hebe 
represents the faculty of youth among the divine 
race. 

Section XX. Iris. 

Iris, constantly introduced in the Iliad as the ordi- 
nary messenger between Olympos and mankind, and 
likewise among the gods themselves, is nowhere men- 
tioned in the Odyssey. Yet the name of Iros is given 

1 Miiller's Dorians, vol. i. pp. 319, 320. (Transl.) 

2 Welcker, Gr. Gotterlehre, vol. i. p. 695. 



THE DIVINITIES OP OLYMPOS. 



333 



to Arnaios the vagrant, because it naturally fell to him 
to circulate messages and news ; and it is evidently 
derived from, or from the same source with, the name 
of this deity. 1 

Her office in the Iliad is not exclusive. Themis is 
the pursuivant who summons the gods to the great 
assembly ;' 2 and Hermes is the envoy or agent who, in 
consequence of the general resolution of the gods re- 
specting the body of Hector, is employed to conduct 
Priam to and from the presence of Achilles. 3 

In the Odyssey, Zeus does not act in his individual 
capacity, but only as head of the Olympian Court ; and 
Iris is his personal messenger rather than the agent or 
envoy of the Olympian Court. There is therefore no 
obvious place for her in a poem where the conduct of 
affairs rests, in the Greek sphere, with Athene, and 
beyond that sphere either with Poseidon, or with the 
collective body of the gods. 

The name of Iris is also the Greek name for the 
rainbow ; and the correspondence is very remarkable 
between her office of messenger from heaven to man, 
and the traditional function of the rainbow as a sign 
that the great covenants of Nature remain undisturbed. 4 
As it is only by the tradition recorded in Scripture that 
the rainbow has this meaning, and not by any obvious 
natural significance, it appears hard to explain how 
Homer came to combine the two ideas, except by sup- 
posing that his race drew the association from the same 
early source from which Moses and the earlier descend- 
ants of Abraham obtained it. 

It is true that Homer nowhere recognizes the relation 



1 Od. xviii. 7. 

y II. xxiv. 333 seqq. 



2 II. xx. 4. 

4 Genesis ix. 12-15. 



334 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



of the Messenger-Goddess to the rainbow. He does 
not, even on any high occasion, assign to her an epithet 
of color. But this is precisely of a piece with his 
manner of separating the deities of his anthropomor- 
phic system from the mere Nature-Powers of other 
theogonies : his Zeus from the Air, his Apollo from the 
Sun, his Artemis from the Moon. Iris as the Rainbow 
would have been wholly out of place in Olympos. 

This separation from the older deities he has marked, 
in the case of Iris, after a most curious fashion. In the 
Twenty-third Iliad, 1 she carries to the palace of Ze- 
phuros the prayer of Achilles for a Wind to consume 
the pyre of Patroclos. She finds the Winds at table, 
and they eagerly solicit her to sit and feast with them. 
She answers that she has not time : if she tarries, she 
will lose her share of a banquet which the Ethiopians 
are just about to provide in their country for the Immor- 
tals. This want of time is evidently an excuse devised 
by good manners : in truth, the higher deity of the 
Olympian order will not stoop to keep company with 
the mere agents of Nature. And this, although Homer 
has given them animation, for Boreas is the Sire of the 
Trojan mares. 2 His impersonation, then, was not a 
human one, like that of the Olympian system. 

In the case just mentioned, the prayer of Achilles 
is addressed to the Winds. But apparently the Poet 
does not allow them the faculty of hearing when they 
are invoked ; for it is Iris who, spontaneously it appears, 
charges herself with the supplication, and in the char- 
acter of metanggelos, inter-messenger, carries it to 
them. 



i 198-212. 



2 II. xx. 223. 



THE DIVINITIES OP OLYMPOS. 



335 



In one 1 other case, when she appears to Helen, and 
exhorts her to repair to the Wall of Troy, no one is 
named as sending her ; but as she has here the title of 
messenger expressly attached to her name, it is prob- 
able that we are to understand she is despatched by 
Zeus. 

When, however, Aphrodite is wounded by Diomed, 
in the Fifth Iliad, Iris comes to her assistance, 2 and 
here, without doubt because her action is spontaneous, 
she is not called messenger. She drives the chariot of 
Ar£s, which carries the wounded goddess to Olympos. 

Though Iris hears prayer, she does not appear to be 
an object of worship, and her spontaneous action is 
confined to the business of the gods. It serves perhaps 
additionally to mark her Hellenic character that, when 
she appears to Achilles, she is without disguise, and is 
addressed by him in her proper character ; 3 but when 
she addresses 4 Priam it is with the voice of Polites, 
and she comes 5 before Helen in the character of her 
sister-in-law Laodike. When she carries the order of 
Zeus to Priam, in the Twenty-fourth Book, she an- 
nounces herself as the messenger of Zeus, but there is 
no proof or even sign of his being acquainted with her 
personally. 6 

Her mission to Achilles is remarkable, because she 
is sent by Here. In this instance alone, she obeys the 
order of a deity other than Zeus. 7 It is one of the 
instances in which Here exhibits a command over 
aerial phenomena, apparently in virtue of her wifehood ; 



i II. iii. 121. 
4 II. ii. 791. 
7 II. xviii. 168. 



2 353, 365. 
5 II. iii. 121. 



3 II. xviii. 182. 
6 II. xxiv. 173. 



336 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



and it bears an independent witness to the connection 
between Iris and the rainbow. 

' In every other case (I think) Iris is sent personally 
by Zeus, from the message for Priam in the Second 
Book of the Iliad, to those for Thetis 1 and Priam in the 
Twenty-fourth. 

By much the most important errand with which she 
is intrusted is the mission to Poseidon in the Fifteenth 
Iliad, where she carries the 'order for his withdrawal 
from the field of battle. Supporting it with skill and 
persuasiveness, she by these means induces him to 
obey. 2 

Section XXI. Thetis. 

Thetis is not to be regarded as properly an Olympian 
deity in the restricted sense of the phrase ; yet by 
reason of her great influence in the Iliad, she is enti- 
tled to a marked position of her own. 

The origin of Thetis in Homer is elemental only, 
and her attributes as a goddess are feeble. She does 
not act upon the course of Nature ; she does not influ- 
ence the mind : her powers of knowledge and vision 
are limited ; she deplores her own lot among the Im- 
mortals ; she is subject to weeping ; she was married 
to Peleus much against her will. In no single instance 
throughout the Iliad does she exercise any divine power: 
nor is there in the Poem the faintest sign of worship as 
paid to her in any place. 

But while her power, strictly so called, is thus 
bounded, her influence and consequence are immense. 
She is the pet deity of the Poet ; or rather the engine 



1 II. xxiv. 77, 143. 



2 II. xv. 157-219. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



337 



he has chosen to carry through his theurgic process. 
It is her request to Hephaistos, that in a moment sets 
him to work upon the arms for Achilles ; and when, in 
answer to the summons of Zeus, she repairs to Olym- 
pos, she is received with an extraordinary respect. But 
the chief act performed by her is the exercise of influ- 
ence over Zeus in the First Book, where she overcomes 
his undisguised reluctance to act, growing out of his 
fears of a conjugal quarrel ; and obtains his assent to 
her petition or demand, that the Trojans may prevail 
in the war, until the Greeks shall have made full rep- 
aration to her son Achilles. 1 

This is termed Qataiog dorj ; 2 a prayer lying outside 
the provisions of destiny and the moral order, or one 
which caused them to vary from their course. The 
meaning of the phrase is not hard to discover. The 
cause of the Trojans in the war was radically unjust. 
The moral law required their discomfiture. In this 
channel ran the main stream of justice and of Provi- 
dence. The request of Thetis was not in itself unjust, 
for her son, who had so powerfully fought for the just 
cause, had been deeply wronged by Agamemnon, the 
head of the Greeks. But it tended to delay the con- 
summation of a greater justice in a world-wide quarrel ; 
and for a time it set aside the moral purpose of divine 
government. Interposing a secondary obstacle, it de- 
flected the current from its course ; and an immense 
influence must be supposed to have been possessed by 
Thetis, who, and who alone, by her personal interven- 
tion, produced this extraordinary effect. 

While she is thus a deity of far greater importance 



1 II. i. 505-510. 



22 



2 II. xv. 598. 



338 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



than her rank in the preternatural order would lead us 
to suppose ; there is no personage, either sublunary or 
celestial, that appears to bear more or deeper marks of 
the moulding hand of the Poet. Some find in her only 
a transposition of the primitive but obsolete deity 
Tethus, the wife of old Okeanos. Her name Thetis 
also appears to be found in the deti of the Albanian 
tongue, meaning the sea. 1 On the other hand, as one 
of some thirty or forty daughters of Nereus, himself an 
elemental god, though practically superseded by Posei- 
don, there is really no regular place for her in Olympos. 
She has all the appearance of a character shaped and 
turned to account for the purposes of the Poem : while, 
at the same time, there are functions ascribed to her 
which seem to imply a higher parentage than that 
assigned to her, and to support the hypothesis which 
makes her a reflection, as it were, of an older deity. 
For though, of the regular Olympian divinities, Aphro- 
dite is among the lowest, she is expressly declared to be 
of a higher order than Thetis. 2 

In her marriage to Peleus, there is nothing that re- 
sembles the clandestine or lawless and transitory con- 
nections with mortals, that are ascribed to Demeter, to 
Aphrodite, and to the Nymphs. It is the result of 
solemn divine Counsel, 3 and it is celebrated by the 
whole Olympian Court. She had habitually sat 4 as 
Queen in the palace of Phthie, and in the discharge of 
her motherly cares she had supplied Achilles with a 
chest of garments for the war. 5 Though at first sight 
the birth of Achilles may seem to be the counterpart 



i Halm, Alban. Studien. p. 252. 
3 II. xviii. 85 ; xxiv. 59. 
5 II. xvi. 221-224. 



2 II. xx. 106. 

4 II. i. 396 ; xvi. 574. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



339 



of that of iEneas, they are really opposed in every 
feature : the one is lawful, solemn, permanent wedlock, 
the other occasional and secret lust. Thetis herself, 
indeed, appears to have been reluctant at the time to 
marry Peleus ; and she rendered obedience only to an 
order of the gods in general. 

The purpose of the Poet in giving this high and un- 
exampled sanction to the union, is not difficult to trace. 
For her agency is the hinge on which turns, in the first 
place, the reconciliation of the old and the new The- 
ogonies ; in the second, of the Pelasgic and the Hel- 
lenic nationalities ; in the third, of the rival purposes 
of the gods (so far as the general scheme of Homer 
admitted them) with regard to Troy. I think we may 
find, that the marriage of Peleus to Thetis signifies and 
records the union, both on earth and in Olympos, of 
the Pelasgian and Hellenic systems. 

The worship of Zeus, as we know, was Pelasgian, 
and therefore pre-Hellenic. The revolt of the three 
great deities of the new scheme, Here, Athene, and 
Poseidon, against him, seems to signify the tendency 
of the new worship, with its anthropomorphic or human- 
izing forces, to effect the overthrow of the former creed, 
cherished by the older but less intelligent and less 
powerful population. And the pure Nature-Powers 
indeed disappear ; but Zeus, whose relation with Nature 
is in its most refined region, that of air, and who repre- 
sents, too, the central principle of Theism, survives the 
change. The agency employed for his relief is that of 
the hundred-handed giant, called Briareus by the gods, 
that is, in relation to the old religion, but Aigaion by 
men, that is, under the new. 1 It seems to be in virtue 



i II. i. 403. 



340 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



of his being a giant that he is the son of Poseidon ; but 
his having a place both in the old and the new Theogo- 
nies evidently fits him to be the reconciler, and his 
being under the influence of Thetis, which is shown 
by his obeying her call, harmonizes with her double 
relation. 

That relation is again indicated by her good offices 
to the child Hephaistos, whose adoption into the Hel- 
lenic Theogony, notwithstanding his Pelasgian asso- 
ciations and his leaning to an elemental character, she 
seems to have procured. 1 

And in yet a third instance do we find her discharg- 
ing a like office. Such were the troubles excited by the 
introduction of the worship of Dionusos, that it seems 
to have been all but cast out of the country ; but, as 
we have already seen, she gave him a refuge, which he 
appears to have requited with the gift of a golden (or 
gilded) amphora, the work of Hephaistos. 2 

For this office of reconciler between the creeds and 
ideas of the two nationalities, she has been carefully 
prepared by the fancy and skill of the Poet. Inde- 
pendently of the apparent association with Tethus, she 
is rooted in the Pelasgian system by her owning Nereus 
for a father. An ample counterpoise, however, has 
been provided, and in part by a most curious contriv- 
ance. She is the mother of Achilles, who is himself 
the highest specimen of the pure Hellenic type, and 
whose Phthian country is, in a pre-eminent sense, 
already the land of Hellenes and Achaians. 

Something, however, is added, that the transition 
may not be too abrupt, and that an Hellenic color may 

1 II. xviii. 394-407. See sect. ix. Hephaistos. 

2 II. vi. 136. Od. xxiv. 73. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



341 



be made to attach even to the extraction of the great 
hero. 

In the Eighteenth Iliad, 1 when his mother issues 
from the depths, she is followed by a long train of 
sisters ; and the names of no less than thirty-three of 
them are given in a string. No catalogue of names 
approaching to this length is to be found anywhere in 
Homer. The nearest to it is in the Eighth Odyssey, 
where he describes his Phaiakes repairing to their 
Games. 2 Here he gives in rapid succession the proper 
names of sixteen youths of Scherie. On examination, 
we find that every one of them has relation to ships 
and navigation. It is therefore evident that the long 
list has a meaning. He desires to illustrate the 
especial, if not exclusive, devotion of the people to 
nautical pursuits. Now, on examining in a similar 
manner the catalogue of Nereids, we find that their 
names, instead of being, as is often the case with his 
Immortals, of an etymology that cannot be ascertained, 
are in nearly every instance pure Hellenic appellations, 
and that they even include the name Doris. 3 It is ex- 
tremely difficult to suppose that Homer should have 
deviated so widely from his usual practice as to these 
lists, without a reason. And the reason seems to be 
obvious ; namely, his desire to give a sort of Hellenic 
character to the family of Nereus, (whose name he 
never introduces except once in the patronymic,) as 
the maternal ancestry of Achilles. 

From the obligations thus conferred, Thetis is in 
a condition to use urgency, though not authority, with 
Zeus ; and honor is done to her son at the expense of 



i II. xviii. 39-49. 



2 Od. viii. 111-116. 



3 II. xviii. 45. 



342 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



the Greek army, notwithstanding the murmurs and 
devices of the Hellenizing deities. In like manner, 
she has no difficulty in obtaining from Hephaistos, on 
a similar ground, the gift of the Arms. In each case it 
is not a mere act of grace and favor, but the requital of 
a benefit received. In the case of Zeus, it is the more 
noteworthy, because the prayer of Thetis is declared to 
be in the nature of a deviation from the appointed 
course of destiny, 1 which had long ago fixed the down- 
fall of Troy. 2 And again he signifies his attachment 
to her, when, though most of the gods recommended 
that the body of Hector should be removed by stealth, 
he arranges that she shall have an opportunity of 
giving glory anew to her son, by advising him to accept 
the ransom 3 which is to be offered by Priam. 

The other principal particulars given us respecting 
Thetis are as follows. 

During the action of the Poem she habitually resides 
with ' the old man her father,' in the depths. We may 
suppose that this was because she was now released 
from any direct maternal duties in the house of Peleus. 

Her& was her nurse ; and was the special designer 
of the marriage. 4 Here again we observe the meeting 
of Hellenic and Pelasgic elements. The undisguised 
reluctance of the bride 5 may have been due to her pre- 
vision of the time when Peleus her husband would be 
overtaken by old age ; but I rather think it may have 
been inserted by Homer in order to separate the case 
of Thetis broadly from those of Demeter and Aphro- 
dite. 

She has an union of strong human affections with 

i II. xv. 598. 2 II. ii. 305-330. 3 II. xxiv. 107-111. 

4 II. xxiv. 60. 5 II. xviii. 434. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



343 



the fainter attributes of deity. Besides what we have 
already seen, she hears from beneath the prayer of 
Achilles, but then he offers it from the shore, and 
looking seawards. 1 She also hears his wail over Pa- 
troclos ; but it was an awfully loud one. 2 She herself 
joined in the audible lament. 3 She was aware of his 
appointed destiny, 4 but was under the necessity of 
applying to him to know the cause of his grief. So 
at least she asserts, though her own son seems to con- 
tradict her. 5 She suggests to him to seek comfort in 
sensual indulgence. 6 In his sorrow, however, she 
watches over him night and day, besides inspiring him 
with courage for the field. 7 And when summoned to 
Olympos in the matter of Hector's ransom, she appears 
there in deep mourning. 8 

Upon entering the divine Assembly, she is received 
with the utmost deference, Athen& yielding her place 
by Zeus, which Thetis takes. 9 This may be a proceed- 
ing of delicate courtesy, having reference either to her 
sorrowing state, or more probably to the honorable 
customs of hospitality. 

On repairing to Hephaistos to obtain the Arms, she 
dispatches her sisters to inform old Nereus of what had 
happened. 10 When the gift is ready, she herself, de- 
scending like a falcon from Olympos, carries the Arms 
to the tent of Achilles. 11 

The point of the sea, at which she dwells with her 
father, is between Samothrace and Imbros. 12 



i II. i. 348-351. 2 n. xviii. 35. 
4 II. i. 416-418; xviii. 95. 
6 H. xxiv. 130. 

8 II. xxiv. 93. 9 II. xxiv. 100. 
u II. xviii. 616 ; xix. 3. 



3 II. xviii. 37, 71, et alibi. 
5 II. i. 363, 365 ; xviii. 63. 
7 II. xxiv. 72 ; xix. 37. 
w II. xviii. 139-147. 
i 2 H. xxiv. 78. 



344 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



She came once more to the camp on the yet more 
sorrowful occasion of the death of Achilles. 1 She then 
appointed the great contest between Ajax and Odysseus 
for the arms of the departed hero. 2 She supplied the 
famous urn, to receive his ashes ; which was the work 
of Hephaistos, and the gift of Dionusos. She also 
supplied the prizes for the funeral games, 8 which she 
obtained from the other gods, more richly endowed, as 
is probable according to the idea of the Poems, than 
herself. 

The epithets applied to Thetis are generally con- 
nected with her marine extraction, and of these Argu- 
ropeza, the silver-footed, is the most characteristic ; or 
else they relate to her good disposition. 

She is plainly not an Olympian deity in the sense of 
belonging to the ordinary Assembly. Of this her recep- 
tion as a guest in the Twenty-fourth Book appears to 
be a positive sign ; and it is in harmony with all that 
we can see of her origin. 

Most of the later tradition respecting Thetis appears 
to be but arbitrary comment and embellishment. The 
authentic data are few. She had a temple, according 
to Strabo, between Old and New Pharsalos, in Thes- 
saly ; doubtless owing to traditions of local worship, 
which had grown out of the distinguished honors 
assigned her in the Poems. 4 Pausanias mentions a 
case in which, during the Messenian wars, a priestess 
of Thetis, named Cleo, was taken and found to have 
in her possession an ancient wooden statue of the 
deity. This appears to have been the only temple to 
her which existed south of Thessaly ; 5 but there was 

1 Od. xxiv. 47, 55. 2 Od. xi. 546. 3 Od. xxiv. 85. 

4 Strabo, ix. p. 431. 5 Paus. iii. 14, 4. 



THE DIVINITIES OF OLYMPOS. 



345 



a tale of a statue of her, planted by Menelaos over 
against Cranae;, 1 on his return from his wanderings. 
It is not improbable that, after the Troica, there may 
have been tendencies to establish this worship, and 
that they were afterwards effaced from the want of a 
sufficient basis for such a divinity. Hesiod adds noth- 
ing to the Homeric account. 2 

I cannot help leaning to the belief that, whether she 
is or is not a transformation of Tethus, she is, in 
most of what we hear of her, a creation of Homer for 
the purposes of his work ; and that, as the Poet of 
Greece, engaged in building up her nationality and 
religion, he has employed her as a most effective in- 
strument for signifying that union of ethnical and 
theogonic elements, which he in part commemorated, 
and in part brought about. 

With reference to the etymology of her name, it is 
perhaps worthy of remark that the only office of media- 
tion at all resembling hers is ascribed to Tethus, who, 
with her husband Okeanos, gives shelter and nurture 
to Here, 3 at the great crisis when Zeus was thrusting 
his father Kronos down to the Underworld. 4 

i Paus. xx. 2. 2 Theog. 244, 1006. 3 D> xiv . 201-204. 

4 It would be matter of great interest to know how far, apart from 
any theory, the names of the Hellenic divinities are really derivable 
from the Sanscrit : and in the recent work of M. Jacolliot, La Bible 
dans VInde, a list of many of them is given with Sanscrit roots, in 
many cases seemingly appropriate. But for one ignorant, like myself, 
of that language, this etymology must rest upon authority : and the 
general propositions of M. Jacolliot's work are not sufficiently re- 
strained and circumspect at once to inspire confidence in his judg- 
ments. 



CHAPTER IX. 



Further Sketch and Moral Aspects of the 
Olympian System. 

I. Various Orders of Preternatural Beings. 

I have dwelt largely on the Olympian Deities. The 
goddess Thetis has received a separate supplemental 
notice, on account, not of her mythological rank, but 
of her essential share in the machinery, both human 
and theogonic, of the Iliad. Also it is essential to give 
some attention to the deities or impersonations con- 
nected with Duty, Doom, and Justice. With respect 
to all other preternatural figures appearing in the 
Poems, it will nearly suffice to present their names 
according to the classification which has been already 
stated. 

1. The Nature-Powers : — 

Okeanos: the source of deities (dsmv ysveaig). 

II. xiv. 201. 
Tethus : the mother of deities. II. xiv. 201. 

These two were married, but estranged. II. xiv. 206. 
It is probable that Homer intends by these expres- 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



34T 



sions to represent Okeanos and Tethus as the general 
parents of the various dynasties of gods ; and it can 
only be from a supreme respect to Okeanos that, when 
all other Rivers are summoned to the Great Olympian 
Assembly, he alone is not called, 1 because he could 
not appear there in his proper place, as head and Sire 
of all. 

Gaia. In the Underworld. The word means Land, 
rather than Earth. 

Nereus. In the sea. Never expressly named ; but 
only called ' the aged father of Thetis,' and signified 
in the Patronymic of Nereides. 

Kronos and Rhea. In Tartaros. Welcker thinks 
that Kronos (Time) is a mythical reflection from 
the conception of Zeus, who alone has in Homer 
the title of Kronides. Rhea he takes, as kindred 
to Era, 2 to be an Earth-goddess of one of the old 
associated races of the Greek Peninsula. Rhea is 
clearly placed in association with Okeanos and 
Tethus, by her delivering over Here to their 
care. 

Amphitrite, the moaning sea (dydarovog), is men- 
tioned in the Odyssey; in a very faint personifi- 
cation. In later mythology, she becomes a wife of 
Poseidon. The passages where she is named, as 
well as the fact that she is only named in this 
poem, will admit of our referring her to the circle 
of Phoenician traditions. 3 

2. The Minor Nature-Powers : — 

The Rivers : of whom are specially named — 
Xanthos or Scamandros. II. xx. 74. 



1 II. xx. 7. 2 Welcker, i. 143 ; ii. 216. 

3 Od. iii. 91 ; v. 422 ; xii. 60, 97. 



348 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Asopos. Od. xi. 260. 
Spercheios. II. xxiii. 144. 
Alpheios. II. xi. 728. 
Enipeus. Od. xi. 238. 
Axios. II. xxi. 141, 157. 

The Nymphs — 

Daughters of Zeus. II. vi. 420. Od. vi. 
105. . 

The Mountain Nymphs. II. vi. 420. 

The Grove Nymphs. II. xx. 8. 

The Fountain Nymphs. II. xiv. 444; xx. 
384; xx; 9. Od. xiii. 356. 

The Meadow Nymphs. II. xx. 9. 

The Nymph Abarbaree. II. vi. 22. 

Worship of Nymphs. Od. xiv. 435. 

Their Altar. Od. xvii. 211. 
The Nymphs mentioned thus far are named as 
having been summoned to the Great Olympian 
Assembly. 

The Nymphs of the Sun, Lampetie and Phae- 
thousa. Od. xii. 132. Their mother is 
Neaira. Od. xii. 133. 

The Nereids, sisters of Thetis, dwelling in the 
sea. II. xviii. 38. 
The Winds : never admitted to Olympos ; but wor- 
shipped ; viz. 

Zephuros. II. xxiii. 195, 200, 208. 

Boreas. II. xx. 223 ; xxiii. 195, 208. 

(Notos and Euros are not mentioned as sepa- 
rate impersonations.) 

3. Mythological Personages of the Outer, or Phoeni- 
cian Sphere. 

Helios, father of Aietes and Kirke. Od. x. 138. 
Kirke. Od. x. 136. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



349 



Calypso, daughter of Atlas. Od. i. 52. 
Ino Leucothee. Od. v. 333. A deified mortal. Pro- 
teus. Od. iv. 385. Declared to belong to Egypt. 
Atlas, the Pillar-bearer, and sea explorer. Od. i. 52. 
Maias, mother of Hermes. Od. xiv. 435. 
Thoosa. Od. i. 71. 

Phorcus. Od. i. 72. ' Ruler of the sea : ' in relations 

with Poseidon through his daughter Thoosa. 
Aietes, brother of Kirke. Od. x. 137. 
Perse, mother of Kirke and Aietes. Od. x. 139. 
Aiolos. Od. x. 2. A semi-deified mortal. 
The Sirens : two in number. Od. xii. 52. 

4. The Rebellious Powers are — 

Kronos (probably). II. xiv. 203. 
Titans (perhaps). II. xiv. 279. 
The Giants. Od. vii. 59, 60. 
Tituos. Od. xi. 576. • 
Otos and Ephialtes. Od. xi. 305 seqq. 

But it is not easy to distinguish in all cases between 
powers rebellious, and powers simply deposed or super- 
seded. 

Passages relating to the punishment of rebellious 
powers, according to the Sacred or Hebrew tradition, 
are to be found in Job xxvi. 5 ; Prov. ii. 18, xxi. 16 ; 
cf. Gen. vi. 4, 5 ; in 2 Pet. ii. 4, 5 ; Wisd. xiv. 6 ; 
Ecclus. xvi. 7 ; Baruch iii. 26, 28. 

5. Ministers of Doom. 

Ate. 
Erinues. 

Moira, Moirai, Aisa, Kataclothes. 
These will be mentioned severally. 



350 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



6. Poetical Impersonations. 

The Muses, daughters of Zeus : their number is only 
mentioned by Homer in Od. xxiv. 60. The invoca- 
tion is most commonly in the singular. They are, 
however, nine in all. 

The Fates (Keres, Cataclothes). 

The Prayers (with Ate). 

Ossa, Pumor. II. ii. 93 ; Od. xxiv. 413. 

Deimos, Terror. II. iv. 440, xxi. 37, xv. 119. Prob- 
ably son of Ares. 

Phobos, Panic. Ibid. A son of Ares. II. xiii. 299. 

Kudoimos, Tumult. Attends upon Enuo. II. v. 593. 

Eris, Discord. II. v. 740. See supra, Chap. VIII. 

Oneiros, Dream. II. ii. 6-54. 

Hupnos, Sleep. II. xiv. 231. 

Thanatos, Death. II. xiv. 231, xvi. 454, 682. 

Alke, Might. II. v. 740. 

Ioke, Rout. II. v. 740. 

Arpuiai : the Storm-winds. Od. i. 241 ; repeated 
xiv. 371, xx. 77; cf. 63. Of these Podarge is 
named as the mother ; who bears to Zephuros the 
two immortal horses of Achilles, Xanthos and Ba- 
lios. 

II. The Erinues. 

There are three chief descriptions of preternatural 
force recognized in the Homeric Poems. 

1. The will and power of the Olympian deities. 

2. The binding efficacy of Destiny. 

3. The obligations of the moral order. 

The first of them may be described, from its mixed 
character of truth and fable, as the Theomythology of 
the Poet. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



351 



The second is his Necessitarianism. 
The third is his Deontology. 

But none of these are scientifically set forth or 
viewed ; and no one of them has an exclusive sway. 

In the first, a personal will is everywhere apparent ; 
and though this will is largely used in sustaining moral 
ideas, yet with them are mixed mere propensities and 
partialities, and even passions and vices. 

In the second and third, personality and will are 
thrown into the background. As his first rests on 
6 shall,' so the second is based on the idea we convey 
by 6 must ; ' but the third is founded on 4 ought.' 

The second, if absolute, is perhaps among the most 
immoral and degrading of all philosophical systems ; 
but those, who have given it a logical assent, have 
seldom adopted it as the rule of life ; • and in Homer it 
has only a very limited range. It is rarely held up to 
us apart from some reference either to the personal will 
of the gods, or to the moral order ; and it never appears 
as the single, ultimate, overruling force. 

The third corresponds with the second in its gener- 
ally, though not invariably, impersonal character ; and 
the ideas belonging to the two respectively are some- 
times mixed in the words iioTqcl, which leans however 
to the idea of force, and aha and daipcov, which con- 
tain more of the moral element. There is also a 
relation between the idea of Zeus, and that of Fate, 
exhibited in the remarkable phrase Aioq aha, the fate 
of, that is, proceeding from, Zeus. 

But in the rear of this law of the great Ought, or the 
moral order of the Universe, there is a personal agency, 
which in Homer is principally charged with enforcing 
its observance ; that namely of the 'Egtvveg. With the 



852 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



progress of time, and the growth of moral corruption, 
the function of these venerable ministers of Eight 
comes more and more to be, not enforcing the observ- 
ance, or repairing the breach, but simply punishing the 
offender ; and they themselves gradually assume the 
power of Furies, dressed in every imaginable horror. 
The later pictures of them are coarse and vulgar, com- 
pared with the awful yet noble figures of the Erinues 
of Homer, in whom is really represented, more than in 
Zeus himself, the idea of an ultimate Divine Judgment, 
together with compensating and rectifying powers. 

The action of the Erinues is to a certain extent 
mixed with that of the subterranean or avenging gods. 
When the father of Phoenix prays the Erinues to make 
him childless, the imprecation is fulfilled by ' the gods, 
and (or namely) the nether Zeus and the awful Per- 
sephone : ' and again, when Althaia invokes these two 
deities for the punishment of Meleagros, it is the 
Erinus who from Erebos hears, and accomplishes, the 
prayer. 1 The Erinues are invoked by Agamemnon to 
witness to his asseverated oath concerning Briseis, as 
punishers of the perjured ; together with Zeus, Gaia, 
and the Sun. 2 The Erinues of Epicaste haunt her 
son (Edipus. 3 In his father's house, Telemachos ap- 
prehends that, should he dismiss his mother, her 
Erinues will come upon him: 4 and Odysseus, when the 
Suitor Antinoos has hurled the stool at him, invokes 
upon him ' if,' or, 6 for surely,' ' there are such,' the gods 
and Erinues of the poor. 5 

The functions of the Erinues are not confined to 
mortals. They affect also the gods. When Ares is 

i II. ix. 449-457 and 565-603. 2 II. xix. 258-260. 

3 Od. xi. 279. 4 Od. ii. 135. 5 Od. xvii. 475, 476. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



353 



laid prostrate in the Theomacby, Athene" tells him his 
fall is due to the Erinues of his mother Here, whose 
side he had abandoned. 1 And, when Iris finds it dif- 
ficult to induce Poseidon to obey the behest of Zeus 
by withdrawing from the field of battle, she reminds 
him that the Erinues are with the elder. 2 

The horse Xanthos receives a voice from Here, to 
warn Achilles of his fate : when he has done it, the 
Erinues arrest his speech. 3 

When Agamemnon has to confess his art] or sin 
in the matter of Briseis, he says, ' I however am not 
to blame, but Zeus, and Fate, and the Erin us that 
stalks in cloud.' 4 

When the daughters of Pandareos have received all 
manner of gifts by the agency of the gods, and Zeus 
is being asked to find them husbands, instead of this, 
the Harpuiai or Hurricanes, who are either storm-blasts 
or subordinate ministers of vengeance, carry them off, 
and deliver them to the Erinues to deal with. 5 

Thus far, in eleven cases out of the twelve in which 
Homer introduces these remarkable personages, they 
evidently appear as the champions and avengers of 
the moral order, in all forms, and against all persons 
whatever. 

They are never subject to the order of any Deity. 
The gods indeed are subject to control, or even punish- 
ment, by them. Zeus is never mentioned in this 
relation : but their office expressly reaches to Poseidon. 
Their agency is wholly anterior to, and independent 
of, all volition whatever. They represent Law in 

1 II. xxi. 410-414. 2 ii. xv< 204. 3 n. xix> 418 

4 II. xix. 87. 5 od. xx. 66-78. 

23 



354 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



action. But, besides punishing offenders, they actually 
stop and repair infractions of the moral or settled 
constitution of the world, as in the case of the horse 
Xanthos. They therefore represent not only right as 
opposed to wrong, but order as opposed to disorder : 
and, in this respect, they supply a very characteristic 
product of the symmetrical mind of the Greeks. 

The Erinues of parents, of elders, of the poor, and the 
like, are the sanctions of those great relations, in which 
moral obligation has its roots for the mass of men. 

In the case of the offence of CEdipus, will was not 
concerned : yet it is enough for them that law was 
violated ; and they appear in order to avenge it. 

In the case of the orphan daughters of Pandareos, 
it is simply excess which they appear to resent. All 
personal gifts, even their food, were conveyed to these 
maidens by the direct agency of deities. This abnormal 
provision, lying far beyond, was therefore in derogation 
of, the established laws for the government of the world : 
it left no space for human volition, effort, or discipline. 
This is the probable ground for the remarkable inter- 
vention of the Erinues against the damsels. 

The twelfth and remaining case represents the close- 
sticking, or tenacious, Eriims 1 (daaittfzig) as insinuat- 
ing an At£ or offence into the mind of Melampous. 
Neleus had made it a condition of obtaining the hand 
of his daughter Pero, that the Suitor should bring him 
certain oxen of Iphiclos. This Melampous undertook 
to do, on behalf not of himself but of a brother ; though 
it entailed a year's imprisonment, which as a Seer he 
must be supposed to have known beforehand. We 

Od. xv. 225-234. Compare ' Post equitem sedet atra cura.' Hor. 
Od. 3. 1, 40. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



355 



have to ask, in what did the offence consist ? Was 
it an imprudence or folly thus to expose himself ? or 
was the theft an offence against the laws of good 
neighborhood or guestship ? In either case we do not 
escape this difficulty, that it was suggested by the 
Erinus. This is a representation not easily brought 
into accordance with any of the other Homeric ref- 
erences to the Erin ues : which, though severe beyond 
the limits of justice, nowhere else appear as the in- 
stigators of evil. It seems to be peculiarly strange, 
because of the habitual care of the Erinus to maintain 
the established order, and not merely to punish the 
breach of it. 

It is true that, in the Odyssey, Athene* is said to 
restrain the Suitors from discontinuing their evil deeds. 
But these are men who had long persisted in a prof- 
ligate and cruel disregard of all the laws of duty. 1 
No such consideration will apply to the case of 
Melampous. Agamemnon, indeed, blames the Erinus 
for his own fault: but this is a mere excuse. The 
whole legend of Melampous is given in a form some- 
what cramped ; and, like other passages in the later 
books of the Odyssey, suggests that it had not been 
fully wrought out by the Poet. Possibly, but I cannot 
say more than possibly, this may account for the mode 
in which the Erinus is introduced. We may also 
remark that here only she is called by the name of 
goddess ; which appears rather inconsistent with her 
position. 

Whether we are to regard the Erinus as really 
capable of being a tempter or not, the conception 



1 Od. xviii. 155, 346. 



356 JUVENTUS MUNDI. 

deviates from the highest form of rectitude by ad- 
ministering punishment, in the case of (Edipus, to an 
involuntary offence. But here the elements of good 
greatly preponderate ; and there is something noble as 
well as awful in these beings, watching with so much 
care over constituted laws, and maintaining or restor- 
ing the equilibrium of the moral world. It is by an 
immense declension that these sublime Erinues become 
the savage Furies of the Latin Hades. 1 

The name of Erinus is traced etymologically by 
Professor Max Miiller to the Sanscrit Saranyu, a 
name of the Dawn : 2 which, as importing discovery 
by means of light, would connect it with the 'office 
we have been considering. 

III. Ate, the Temptress. 

The Ate of Homer, as a person, represents a Temp- 
tress, who insinuates into the- mind error or crime, 
begun in folly, and ending in calamity. Among the 
later Greeks it is Calamity simply, with a shadow of 
Destiny hanging in the distance. 

The Homeric Ate" means and wishes ill to mortals ; 
but seems to have no power to hurt them, except it 
be through channels wholly or partially opened to 
her by their own erring or bewildered volition. Even 
Deity is not exempt from her illusions : for, before the 
birth of Heracles, 3 she it is who leads Zeus to promise 
what will, through Herd's craft, overturn his own most 
dearly cherished plans. For this excess of daring, 

i ^En. vi. 555, 571. 2 Lectures on Language, ii. 484, 516, 562. 

3 II. xix. 95 seqq. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



357 



Zeus seizes her by the hair, and hurls her from Olym- 
pos to Earth, 1 apparently taken to be her native seat. 

For she 2 is his eldest daughter; his daughters too 
are the Litai, or prayers, that lag behind her. She 
is vigorous and nimble, prowling about for mischief. 
They are limping and decrepit : they cannot see 
straight before them. 3 In this allegory, we have man 
ready and quick to err, slow to repent. We have 
also a living power of Evil extraneous to him, and 
ever soliciting him to his own loss and ruin. Here is a 
picture in substance much resembling the Serpent of 
the Book of Genesis, the Satan of Scripture, and the 
punishment he has undergone. 

The temptations of Ate are to acts, also called atai, 
variously shaded between folly and sheer crime. The 
most innocent ate of Homer is perhaps the sleep of 
Odysseus in Thrinakie, during which his crew con- 
sume the oxen of the Sun. 4 He may, indeed, be re- 
garded as in some sort responsible for his comrades: 
yet he had bound them by oath 5 not to commit the 
acts. 

We cannot be surprised if occasionally we find 
moral government in Homer out of joint, as in the 
case lately observed, where the Eriniis is said to 
send an Ate. 6 Agamemnon complains that his Ate 
was sent to him by Zeus, together with Destiny and 
Eriims ; 7 but this is an exhibition of a weak and self- 
excusing character, rather than a normal example of 
the thought current in that age. 

i II. xix. 126-133. 2 n. X i x . 91. 3 n. i x . 499-514. 

4 Od. xii. 372. 5 Od. xii. 303. 6 Qd. xv. 234. 

i II. xix. 87. 



358 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Besides the At£ of Zeus, of Agamemnon, and of 
Odysseus, we have in Homer the following chief 
examples : 

Of Dolon, II. x. 391. 

Of Melampous, Od. xv. 233. 

These are offences against prudence. 
Of Paris, II. vi. 356 ; xxiv. 28. 
Of Helen, Od. iv. 261; xxiii. 223. 
Of the Manslayer, II. xxiv. 480. 

Of the drunken Centaur Eurution, Od. xxi. 295-302. 
These are moral transgressions. 

The higher form of human wickedness, deliberate 
and self-conscious, is, as we shall see, not at£ but 
atasthalie\ 

IV. Fate or Doom. 

The words used in Homer to. signify Fate, Doom, 
and Destiny, are Ker, also in the plural Keres ; Kata- 
clothes ; Moira ; Aisa ; and Moros. 

Of these, Ker approaches most frequently to a distinct 
impersonation ; has the faintest trace of any moral 
element, distinct from the mere machinery of an iron 
system of decrees ; and is of the darkest color, as it 
always implies doom or death, never a fated blessing. 
Ker again is the destiny of an individual ; not of law 
governing the world. It is, however, on no occasion 
eluded or contravened. 

The Kataclothe's or Spinners are only mentioned in 
Od. vii. 197. They are personal : and the epithet 
6 weighty ' or 6 oppressive ' is attached to them. They 
partake of the character of the Keres. 

Neither of these touch the great questions, how far 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



359 



destiny overrules the human will, and how far it is 
separate from, or even superior to, the divine will. 

The word Aisa means the destiny of a particular 
person : 1 or the moral law for the government of con- 
duct ; 2 or that moral law as proceeding from Zeus or 
Providence personally, as theDios aisa, 3 daimonos 
aisa: or lastly a separate power moving and ruling 
affairs. 4 In this last and gravest sense, Aisa is not very 
prominently used. Again, it is but rarely and faintly 
personified ; it contains more of the moral element, 
more of ought than of must : though, when used to mean 
Death it is irresistible, because the law of death cannot 
be directly cancelled. Otherwise, it may be overcome. 
In II. xvi. 780, the Achaians gain the upperhand against 
the Trojans, in spite of Aisa. But this particular 
Aisa was no more than the decree of Zeus, which gave 
that one day of success to the fortunes of Troy. The 
dominant idea of Ais a generally is not blind command, 
but an ordained law of right: a law without doubt 
very liable to be broken. 

Moira, like Aisa, means an allotted share: but it 
is less ethical, more contracted, and more sovereign 
and resistless. Moira deals with each man: but we 
scarcely hear of the Moira of a man. It may mean 
good fortune, and has this sense in opposition to am- 
morie: 5 it requires a darkening epithet to give it the 
adverse sense. 6 It is however often used for death. 
It may be the divine will embodied, as we have the 
Moira of the god, or the gods; 7 but never of any 
named god, which seems to place it somewhat higher 

i II. i. 416. 2 II. iii. 59. 3 ii. xvii . 321. 

4 II. xx. 127 ; xvi. 441. 5 Od. xx. 76. 6 n. x ii. H6. 

i Od. iii. 269 ; xxii. 413. 



360 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



than Aisa. Nothing in Homer is actually done con- 
trary to Moira : but such things seem to be regarded 
as not beyond the bounds of possibility. 1 

It is not however incapable of receiving the moral 
element. To speak generally, morsimos is destined, 
aisimos is right. But when Antinoos is killed, he is 
killed according to Moira, 2 that is rightly: and the 
term catamoiran connects it with the moral order, 
in the sense of propriety. 3 

In the order of action, then, Moira is above Aisa ; 
in the order of law, below it. 

Moros in Homer is never personified. Referred to 
an individual it seems to mean his death : and etymo- 
logically it corresponds with the Latin mors. It is 
never associated with the deity. But it is like Ai s a in 
receiving the sense of the moral law. And here it 
corresponds with the Latin mos, moris. For mortals 
bring calamity on themselves in defiance of moros, and 
in similar defiance Aigisthos commits his crimes. 4 This 
can hardly mean that he was too strong for Destiny ; 
but he was too strong for Right. 

In none of these forms does Destiny ever fight with 
the gods ; or, unless it be in the shape of Death, defy 
them. The later Greek mind elaborated the idea of a 
Fate apart from, and higher than, the gods. 5 But, in 
Homer, not even the human will is controlled in such 
a manner as to suggest or sustain the Necessitarian 
theory. Indeed we find the gods helping Destiny against 
man : as when, in the Second Iliad, 6 the Greeks would, 

1 II. xx. 336. 2 Od. xxii. 54. 3 II. x. 169. 

4 Od. i. 34, 35. 

5 ^sch. Ag. 993 ; Herod, i. 91 ; Philera. Fragm. 86. 

6 II. ii. 155. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



361 



against M oros, have returned to their country after the 
rush from the Assembly, had not Here urged Athene" 
to stay the torrent of home-sick emotion : and Apollo 
entered Troy, lest the Greeks should take it, against 
Moros, on the day of the fall of Hector. 1 Nor is the 
Fate of Homer absolutely blind : on the contrary it 
shows rather a tendency at times to grow into a sort 
of rival Providence, as in 6 The Fates have ordained for 
man a hardy mind.' 2 

And when, in order to obtain a comprehensive view 
of the field of human action , we turn to the general 
plan of the two Poems, we find that in each case they 
work, not according to the impulsion of a blind and 
occult force, but rationally, towards the fulfilment of 
a divine or Olympian decree, announced at the outset, 
and steadily pursued to the end. 3 

V. Animal Worship. 

Although Animal worship has played so considerable 
a part in the religions of the East, the traces of it in 
Homer are few, and, with one exception, they are also 
faint. 

That exception is the extraordinary sanctity attach- 
ing, in the Twelfth Odyssey, to the Oxen of the Sun, 
which I have treated as belonging to the Phoenician 
system, and as foreign to the Olympian religion. 4 

Other traces seem to be rather dubiously discoverable, 
as follows: 

(a) The introduction of the immortal horses, Xanthos 

1 II. xxi. 517. 2 II. xx iy. 49. 

3 II. i. 5 ; iv. 62-64. Od. i. 76-79. 

4 See supra, Helios, Chap. VIII. 



362 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



and Balios ; the gift of speech, conferred for the mo- 
ment by Here on Xanthos ; and, what is of more 
weight, the gift of prevision, which enabled him to 
foretell his master's death. That gift he did not derive 
from the goddess. But, when he had thus spoken, 
the Erinus interfered to arrest this violation of the 
natural order. 1 

(5) The assumption by deities of the forms of birds : 
viz.: — 

By" Athene, II. vii. 59 ; Od. i. 320, iii. 372, xxii. 240. 
Apollo, II. vii. 59. 
Hupnos, II. xiv. 290. 
Ino Leucothee ( Phoenician), Od. v. 337. 

(<?) The horse in Homer generally has not only a 
poetical grandeur, but a near relation to deity, which 
I am unable sufficiently to explain : but which, it seems 
possible, may be the reflection or analogue of the place 
assigned to' the ox in the East. Several circumstances, 
and among them the practice of describing a cham- 
paign country as one suited to feeding the horse, 2 
combine to show how completely, for the Greek, this 
noble creature stood at the head of the animal crea- 
tion. 

Some have pointed to qualities belonging to the 
brute creation as the possible groundwork of the extra- 
ordinary system of religion, which regarded animals as 
fit objects of worship : the unity and tranquillity of 
animal life, which makes it, as it were, a colorless 
medium for an inward spirit to inhabit : and the sin- 

1 II. xix. 404-418. 

2 II. ii. 287, and in fourteen other places. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



363 



gular instincts by which it appears in a manner to 
apprehend the future. 1 

For my own part, I am not able, even after reading 
the argument of the learned and able Mr. Davison, 2 
to escape from the belief that the hypothesis of a divine 
command, given before the races recorded in Scripture 
were multiplied and dispersed, affords by far the most 
rational and satisfactory explanation of the wide ex- 
tension of the practice of animal sacrifice, and of its 
remarkable uniformity as between races such as the 
Hebrews and the Hellenes, who had no communication 
together, and little indeed of anything in common. At 
the same time, it is an hypothesis only, and has not 
been demonstrated. 

But if mankind thus offered certain animals to their 
gods, under what they esteemed a divine authority, it 
is not difficult to perceive the chain of association by 
which those animals might themselves, in process of 
time, very easily be taken for symbols of the godhead, 
and might again, from being mere symbols, grow to 
be esteemed the real shrines of its glory, and thus to 
attract the worship which is its due. 

VI. On the Modes of Approximation between the Divine and 
the Human Nature. 

The anthropomorphic principle of the Greek religion 
found for itself, in a spontaneous manner, several dis- 
tinct forms or channels of development, for the closer 
association of the races of gods and men. 

1 Dollinger, Heid. u. Jud. vi. 130, p. 424. 

2 Inquiry into the Origin and Intent of Primitive Sacrifice. Lon- 
don, 1825. 



364 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



The deification of heroes and benefactors after death 
appears before us in Homer as begun, yet, at least 
in the Olympian mythology, as incomplete. No per- 
son, avowedly of human origin, has yet been advanced 
to the rank of deity with the full consequences both 
of an abode in heaven, and a worship on earth. 

Yet the consummation of the processes imminent. 
All the materials are prepared ; and all the steps taken, 
except the final one which combines them into a con- 
sistent whole. 

The elements of what was soon to be a system are 
found in Homer principally as follows : — 

1. The ascription of human forms, manners, affec- 
tions, passions, and other qualities, to the gods in 
general, lying at the root of the Homeric mythology 
as an anthropomorphic system, firmly lays the ground 
for further assimilation and intercommunion of the 
two orders of being. 

2. Divine beauty, strength, influence, and intellect, 
arc ascribed freely in a long list of epithets and phrases, 
to the mortals most eminent for these properties : and 
even the epithet deTog, meaning simply 6 divine,' is 
attached, in the two grand cases of the Protagonists 
Achilles and Odysseus, to the living personages of the 
Poems, and to a larger number of the most eminent 
among the dead. This second head of preparation is 
as it were the counterpart of the first. 

3. Birth from a divine progenitor, and even from 
a divine father, is ascribed to many personages who 
are active in the Poems, as well as to many who were 
dead. 

4. Passion for beautiful or distinguished men is 
freely ascribed to goddesses, in a number of instances. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



365 



Among these were some, especially Aphrodite and 
Demeter, who were already in part, and whom at a 
later date we find fully and unequivocally, adopted into 
the Hellenic religion. But it is remarkable that such 
passion is in no case throughout the Poems ascribed 
to any of those goddesses who were either the most 
elevated or else the most national : Here, Athene, Leto, 
Artemis. A higher and purer idea of woman was 
entertained among the Achaians, and reflected in their 
religion, than in the elemental or the oriental systems. 

5. More closely to the purpose than anything that 
has yet been stated, are the instances of Ganymede 
and Cleitos, translated to heaven and the society of 
the Immortals for their beauty: 1 of Tithonos, taken 
up to be the husband of Eos or the morning ; possibly 
of Marpessa, whom Apollo ' snatched up : ' 2 and of Ino 
Leucothee, 3 who locally, that is, in the great sea region, 
has from being a mortal risen to the honors and 
character of deity. Aiolos, too, may be considered as 
nearly approaching to the character of a deified Per- 
sonage. 4 

These, indeed, are all foreign, or extra -Hellenic, 
traditions. But of Hellenes, we have Castor, and 
Poludeukes or Pollux, who, even while on alternate 
days alive though not among men, and still in the 
lower regions, yet have by gift of Zeus had divine 
honors allotted to them: 5 and more still, we have 
Herakles, 6 who, while his Wraith is in the Shades, 
himself dwells among the gods, and has Hebe, who 



i II. xx. 233. Od. xv. 250. 
3 Od. v. 333-335. 
5 Od. xi. 298-304. 



2 II. ix. 564. 
4 Od. x. 1. 
6 0;!. xi. 601. 



366 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



is apparently a goddess proper, assigned to him for 
his mate. 

6. We have also the case of Dionusos, whom, as 
having been born of a woman, we must apparently 
take to have been at the outset a mortal, but who had, 
as is pretty clear, in the time of Homer already become 
an Olympian god. 

7. Asclepios underwent a subsequent deification ; but 
in Homer he is a mortal only, for his sons, Podalirios 
and Machaon, bear the title of Asclepiad, 1 and no 
mortal in Homer ever derives a patronymic from 
a god. 

8. To whatever inferences the case of Dionusos may 
lead, there is no other in which we find a trace or sug- 
gestion of worship in its proper sense, as paid to any 
deceased or translated hero. Yet there are two in- 
stances of what may be called initial worship, which 
must not be overlooked. Achilles, besides the fat of 
oxen and sheep, casts four ■ horses, two dogs, and 
twelve Trojan youths, upon the funeral pyre of 
Patroclos. 2 This is, however, I think, to be inter- 
preted purely as a gratification to the departed spirit. 
In the Eleventh Odyssey we advance a step further, 
though some may think the Oriental character of the 
scenery of the Poem in this part ought to be taken into 
account. Odysseus, by express order from Kirkd, 
besides making a libation, sacrifices a ram and a sheep 
on the spot, with invocation to the gods, of whom A'ides 
and Persephone are named ; and permits the dead suc- 
cessively to drink the blood, that they may tell him what 
he wants to know. 3 Here we see, dominant and un- 

i II. ii 731 ; iv. 204. 2 n. xx iii. 171-176. 3 Qd. xi. 35, 44-47. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



367 



mixed, that idea of actual enjoyment by the objects of 
the sacrifice, which in the case of ordinary offerings to 
the gods is combined with other ideas more proper to 
the notion of worship. But besides this, Odysseus is 
also enjoined to promise, and he promises accordingly, 
that, on his return to Ithaca, he will offer (and here the 
sacrificial words §s&iv and Isqsvsiv are employed) a black 
sheep to Teiresias, and a cow that has never calved to 
the dead in general. 1 This vow seems to come within 
a step, at least, of the full idea of worship. We do not 
hear of its fulfilment on his return home : but this may 
be because we are not carried by the Poem to a perfect 
settlement of the difficulties which he finds awaiting 
him. Prayers (ev%ai and htat) are here expressly men- 
tioned as used in the propitiation of the dead. But these 
are the entire mass of dead, not selected spirits of the 
great or brave. 

One marked, and yet rather obscure, form of the con- 
nection between the gods and the human race in Homer 
is that of divine filiation. It is with much diffidence 
that I offer any explanation of this subject. A very 
large number of cases are recorded by the Poet, in 
which the parentage of a god is expressly assigned to 
some human house or hero. In some instances it 
arises by inference ; as when he calls Bellerophon, the 
son of Sisuphos, descended from the god (dnov yovog 2 ), 
which can only mean, as Sisuphos was descended from 
Aiolos, that Aiolos was the offspring of a god. So, 
again, in the Legend of Nestor, 3 we are told that the 
young heroes of the line of Actor were saved from 
death by their ancestor Poseidon. The Iliad enables 



1 Od. xi. 29-33. 



2 II. vi. 191. 



3 II. xi. 751. 



368 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



us to trace this line up to Azeus, 1 who must either 
have been a reputed son of the god, or may more prob- 
ably have been an Aiolid, and thus descended from him, 
like the heads of so many other great houses. Amphi- 
machos, another Actorid, is slain in the Thirteenth 
Iliad : whereupon Poseidon is exceedingly vexed at 
heart for his vlmvog or descendant. 2 

To examine more thoroughly into this matter, let us 
take first for consideration the case of the great Ancient 
Houses, represented by their chiefs in and before the 
Trojan war We find expressly assigned to Zeus the 
stocks oi 

1. Perseus, 4. Heracles. 

2. Minos, 5. Minos, 

3. Aiacos, 6. Dardanos. 

And to Poseidon those of 

1. Actor (probably through Aiolos), 

2. Pelias, 

3. Neleus, 

4. Bellerophon, through Aiolos, 

5. Cretheus, (and Eumelos,) through Aiolos. 

Again it appears, upon examination, that Homer very 
commonly characterizes by the epithet d^vfAwv persons 
of recognized divine descent. This epithet he gives to 
members of the families of 

. 1. The Pelopids, 

2. Odysseus, 

3. Telamon. 

4. Portheus (ancestor of Meleager and of Tudeus), 

5. Salmoneus and Augeias (through Aiolos,) with a very 

few others of less distinction. 



i II. ii. 513, 621. 



2 II. xiii. 206. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 369 

V 



But the question arises, why is Homer so reserved, 
in many of these cases, with respect to the immediate 
connection between the first ancestor and the divine 
stock ? The case where we should have expected it to 
be most clearly declared, is that of the great sovereign 
house of Agamemnon. But not a word is said by him 
expressly on the subject of the birth of the Pelopids ; 
and the sceptre comes first into the hands of Pelops, 1 
whereas tradition names Tantalos as the first ancestor, 
and this Homer in no way contradicts. In the case of 
Dardanos, on the contrary, which is the counterpart to 
that of the Pelopids, the line is traced straight up to 
Zeus. 2 

The natural explanation seems to be that, here as in 
so many other cases, Homer's functions as Chronicler 
were circumscribed by his feelings of nationality ; and 
that he acted on his usual rule of never knowingly re- 
ferring, or providing means to refer, anything Hellenic 
to a source admittedly foreign. Therefore, where the 
oldest recognized ancestor is an undoubted Greek, as 
in the case of Aiacos or Heracles, he gives the divine 
parentage ; but where the line ran up to some one, 
who had not been completely or adequately Hellenized, 
there no distinct declaration is given, and we are left to 
form a judgment for ourselves, from slighter indica- 
tions, or from the fact that there is a general repre- 
sentation of the Kings and Chiefs of the heroic age as 
heaven-descended. In the case of Dardanos, there 
could be no corresponding motive for reticence. 

It will be observed, that all the very ancient houses 
in Homer, say those of from four to seven generations 



i II. ii. 104. 



24 



2 II. xx. 215. 



370 



JUYENTUS MUNDI. 



back, as well as the most distinguished modern ones, 
like those of Aiacos and Heracles, are referred either 
to Zeus, the supreme god of the Pelasgians and Hel- 
lenes ; or to Poseidon, who appears to have been the 
supreme god according to the conception of the Phoe- 
nician immigrants. So far, then, as these cases are 
concerned, it seems needless to travel far in search of 
an explanatory hypothesis. In fact if there was a 
tradition, such as we find from the Scriptures to have 
prevailed among the Hebrews, and by which man in 
his first inception was viewed as standing in the rela- 
tion of sonship to the Almighty, it is in accordance with 
all likelihood that, in process of time, this illustrious 
extraction should come in popular estimation to be 
confined to chiefs or ruling men. 

This explanation is however principally available for 
the class of Kings and Princes, who are called Zeus- 
born and Zeus-nurtured ; and for those individual 
cases, which are of the greatest antiquity, and where 
no name of a mother is preserved. When we find a 
maternal name, a new element of difficulty is intro- 
duced. This difficulty may be deemed secondary in 
cases like those of Minos and Perseus ; because there 
the mother may be nothing more than an indication, 
supplied by tradition, of the national extraction of the 
son. The mother of Minos is simply ' the daughter of 
an illustrious Phoenician,' and Danae has her counter- 
part in a local Phoenician name. But what are we to 
say of Alcmen£, the mother of Heracles ? 1 of Lao- 
damia, the mother of Sarpedon ? 2 of Astuoche, the 
mother of Ascalaphos and Ialmenos ? 3 of Polumele, 4 



i II. xix. 98. 
3 II. ii. 513. 



'2 II. vi. 198. 
4 II. xvi. 180. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



371 



the mother of Eudoros ? perhaps also, of Turo, the 
mother of Pelias and Neleus ? 1 All these are women, 
having a place and an individuality as well defined as 
any other pre-Homeric women of the Poems. 

The explanation commonly given of these cases has 
been that they were cases of mere bastardy, covered 
with the illustrious names of deity. May it not how- 
ever be said that, if this be true, then nowhere did 
those connected with the birth of illegitimate children 
take so amazingly high a flight as among the Greeks ; 
since, not content with equality, they gave them a 
higher title, by extraction, than the lawful offspring of 
the family themselves enjoyed ? Of bastardy, as com- 
monly understood, we have plenty of examples in the 
Homeric poems. Sometimes, as in the case of Eudoros, 
a person born out of wedlock was reared upon the same 
footing as a legitimate child. But when this is done, 
it is always mentioned as a thing worthy of note, evi- 
dently because more or less exceptional. 

I cannot help thinking that these singular cases of 
persons who had a known mother, and who supplied 
the want of a known father by claiming the parentage 
of . a god, were not cases of common bastardy, but that 
they are rather to be explained by reference to the an- 
cient customs of what may be called marriage by vio- 
lent abduction, or violation without dishonor, practised 
in ancient times by the men of one tribe upon the 
daughters of another. 2 Of the traces of this custom, 
ancient history is full ; and even modern manners, in 
certain cases, aye at our very doors, visibly retain 

1 Od. xi. 235, 254. 

2 See Maclellan on Primitive Marriage, Edinb. 1865. 



372 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



them. It seems to me that where, in the incidents of 
a tribal raid, some noble maid or even some matron of 
high birth fell a victim to the lust of an invader, it 
was agreeable to likelihood, as well as to social justice, 
that a clear line should be drawn between such cases 
and cases of dishonor willingly or corruptly incurred ; 
and that either the involuntary mother at the time of 
the birth, or her offspring as he grew up, and went 
among his fellows without having like them a father to 
point to and to lean on, might exceptionally, and under 
favoring circumstances, have contrived to imitate for 
themselves the old tradition of the descent of kings 
from gods. The choice of the deity might in such 
cases be influenced by the particular worship in vogue 
among the aggressive tribe. 

The correlative cases, of legendary births due to the 
passion of goddesses for men, may perhaps admit of a 
similar explanation. The probable difference in the 
facts being, that these would be instances where the 
mother disappeared, and the child remained in the 
possession of the father. This remark may possibly 
apply to iEneas, son of Aphrodite ; to Aisepos and 
Pedasos, sons of the Naiad Nymph Abarbare£ ; to 
Satnios, the son of another Naiad ; and to Iphition, 
the son of a third. 1 

The birth of Achilles from Thetis will not fall into 
either of these categories; since it is represented as 
having taken place in regular wedlock. My conjecture 
respecting this birth is, that it may possibly be a pure 
invention, due to Homer himself, though perhaps sug- 
gested by the legends current in his day, respecting the 



1 II. ii. 821 ; vi. 21 ; xiv. 444; xx. 384. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



373 



attachments contracted by goddesses to mortal men. 
Such a fiction would be comparatively easy in the case 
of one who, like Peleus, was a reputed immigrant into 
the country which he ruled. 

I sum up then by observing that we find, over and 
above the use of language properly figurative, four 
main channels of approach for the human nature to 
the divine, 

1. Translation. 

2. Mixed Composition. 

3. Affiliation. 

4. Deification. 

And affiliation again, if I am right, appears in at least 
four shapes, 

(a) The ascription of a Divine birth or nurture to 

Kings and Princes as a class. 

(b) The ascription of a particular god as ancestor to 

a sovereign house. This god is always either Zeus 
or Poseidon. 

(c) More recent births from a divine father. 

(d) Births of men from a goddess ; few, and all recent. 

VII. The Homeric View of the Future State. 

The picture of the future state of man in Homer is 
eminently truthful as a representation of a creed which 
had probably fallen into dilapidation, and of the feel- 
ings which clustered about it ; and it is perhaps unri- 
valled in the perfectly natural, but penetrating force, 
with which it conveys the effect of dreariness and 
gloom. It does not appear to be in all respects 
coherent and symmetrical ; and, while nothing be- 
tokens that this defect is owing to the diversity of 



374 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



the sources from which the traditions are drawn, it 
is such as might be due to the waste wrought by time 
and change on a belief which had at an earlier date 
been self-consistent. 

The future life, however, is in Homer used with 
solemnity and force as a sanction of the moral laws, 
especially in so far as the crime of perjury is concerned. 1 
The Erinues dwell in the Underworld, and punish per- 
jurors. As the Erinues are invoked with reference to 
other offences, 2 we may therefore presume them also to 
have been punishable in the Underworld. 

The world to come is exhibited to us by Homer in 
three divisions. 

First, there is the Elysian plain, apparently under 
the government of Rhadamanthus, to which Menelaos 
will be conducted, or rather perhaps translated, in 
order to die there ; not for his virtues, however, but 
because he is the husband of Helen, and so the son-in- 
law of Zeus. The main characteristic of this abode 
seems to be easy and abundant subsistence with an 
atmosphere free from the violence of winter, and from 
rain and snow. Okeanos freshens it* with Zephyrs ; it 
is therefore apparently on the western border of the 
world. 3 Mr. Max Miiller conjectures that Elysium 
(JftvOw) may be a name simply expressing the future. 4 
The whole conception, however, may be deemed more 
or less ambiguous, inasmuch as the Elysian state is 
antecedent to death. 

2. Next comes the Underworld proper, the general 
receptacle of human spirits. It nowhere receives a 

1 II. iii. 297 ; xix. 259. 2 See Erinues, sect. iii. supra. 

3 Od. iv. 561-569. 4 Lectures on Language, ii. 562, n. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



375 



territorial name in Homer, but is called the abode of 
Aides, or of Aides and Persephone\ Its character is 
chill, drear, and dark ; the very gods abhor it. 1 Better 
to serve for hire even a needy master, says the Shade of 
Achilles, than to be lord over all the dead. 2 It reaches, 
however, under the crust of the earth; for, in the Theo- 
machy, Aidoneus dreads lest the earthquake of Poseidon 
should lay open his domain to gods and men. 3 

Minos administers justice among the dead, as a king 
would on earth. But they are in general under no 
penal infliction. Three cases only are mentioned as 
cases of suffering : those of Tituos, Tantalos, and 
Sisuphos. 4 The offence is only named in the case of 
Tituos ; it was violence offered to the goddess Leto. 
Heracles suffers a strange discerption of individuality ; 
for his eidolon or Shade moves and speaks here, 
while ' he himself is at the banquets of the immortals.' 5 
Again, Castor and Pollux are here, and are alive on 
alternate days, while they enjoy on earth the honors of 
deities. 6 Here, then, somewhat conflicting conditions 
appear to be combined. 

Within the dreary region seems to be a palace, 
which is in a more special sense the residence of its 
rulers. 7 

The access to the Underworld is in the far Bast, by 
the Ocean River, at a full day's sail from the Euxine, 
in the country of the cloud-wrapt Kimmerioi. 8 From 
this point the way lies, for an indefinite distance, up 
the Stream ; to a point where the beach is narrow, and 

1 II. xx. 65. 2 od. xi. 489. 

3 II. xx. 61. Comp. Od. xi. 302. 4 Od. xi. 576, 582, 593. 

•5 Od. xi. 601-627. 6 Od. xi. 300-304. 

7 Od. xi. 627, 635. 8 Od. xi. 9-14. See Chap. XIII. sect. 3. 



376 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



where Persephone is worshipped in her groves of poplar 
and of willow. 1 

3. There is also the region of Tartaros, as far below 
that of Aides, as Aides is below the earth. Here 
dwell Iapetos and Kronos, far from the solar ray. 2 
Kronos has a band of gods around him, who have in 
another place the epithet of sub-Tartarean ; and the 
name of Titans. 3 It does not appear whether these 
are at all identified with the deposed dynasty of the 
Nature Powers, whose dwelling is in the Underworld ; 4 
and with whom the human Dead had communication, 
for Achilles charges the Shade of Patroclos with a 
commission to the River Spercheios. 5 

The line, therefore, between the realm of Aides and 
the dark Tartaros is obscurely drawn ; but in general 
we may say that, while the former was for men, the 
latter was for deposed or condemned Immortals. We 
hear of the offences of Eurumedon and the Giants with 
their ruler ; 6 and, though their place is not named, we 
may presume them, as well as Otos and Ephialtes, to 
be in Tartaros, in addition to the deities already 
named. 7 Hither it is that Zeus threatens to hurl 
down refractory divinities of the Olympian Court. 8 

This threefold division of the unseen world is in 
some kind of correspondence with the Christian, and 
with what may have been the patriarchal, tradition ; as 
is the retributive character of the future state, how- 
ever imperfectly developed, and the continuance there 
of the habits and propensities acquired on earth. 

i Od. x. 506-512. 2 ii. V iii. 16, 479. 3 II. xiv. 274, 279. 

4 II. iii. 278. 5 ii. xxiii. 144-153. 6 Od. vii. 58-60. 

1 Od. xi. 318. II. v. 385, 407. 
8 II. v. 897, 898 ; viii. 10-17 ; 401-406. 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 



377 



VII I. The Olympian System in its Results. 

The history of the race of Adam before the Advent 
is the history of a long and varied but incessant prep- 
aration for the Advent. It is commonly perceived 
that Greece contributed a language and an intellectual 
discipline, Rome a political organization, to the appar- 
atus which was put in readiness to assist the propaga- 
tion of the Gospel ; and that each of these, in its kind, 
was the most perfect that the world had produced. 
I have endeavored elsewhere to show with some ful- 
ness what was the place of Greece in the Providential 
order of the world ; 1 and likewise what was the rela- 
tion of Homer to the Greeks, and to their part of the 
Divine plan, as compared with the relation of the 
Sacred Scriptures to the chosen people of God. 2 
I cannot now enter on that field at large ; yet neither 
can I part without a word from the subject of the 
Olympian religion. 

In the works of Homer, this design is projected with 
such extraordinary grandeur, that the representation 
of it, altogether apart from the general merits of the 
Poems, deserves to be considered as one of the topmost 
achievements of the human mind. Yet its character, 
as it was first and best set forth in its entirety from 
the brain of the finisher and the maker, is not more 
wonderful than its subsequent influence and duration 
in actual life. For, during twelve or fourteen hundred 
years, it was -the religion of the most thoughtful, the 
most fruitful, the most energetic portions of the human 

1 Address to the University of Edinburgh, 1865. 

2 Studies on Homer, vol. ii. Olympos, sect. x. 



878 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



family. It yielded to Christianity alone ; and to the 
Church it yielded with reluctance, summoning up 
strength in its extreme old age, and only giving way 
after an intellectual as well as a civil battle, obstinately 
fought, and lasting for generations. For the greater 
part of a century after the fall of Constantinople, in 
the chief centres of a Christian civilization in many 
respects degenerated, and an ecclesiastical power too 
little faithful to its trust, Greek letters and Greek 
thought once again asserted their strength over the 
most cultivated minds of Italy, in a manner which 
testified to the force, and to the magic charm, with 
which they were imperishably endowed. Even within 
what may be called our own time, the Olympian religion 
has exercised a fascination altogether extraordinary 
over the mind of Goethe, who must be regarded as 
standing in the very first rank of the great minds of 
the latest centuries. 

The Olympian religion, however, owes perhaps as 
large a share of its triumphs to its depraved accom- 
modations, as to its excellencies. Yet an instrument 
so durable, potent, and elastic, must certainly have 
had a purpose to serve. Let us consider for a moment 
what it may have been. 

We have seen how closely, and in how many ways, 
it bound humanity and deity together. As regarded 
matter of duty and virtue, not to speak of that highest 
form of virtue which is called holiness, this union was 
effected mainly by lowering the divine element. But 
as regarded all other functions of our nature, outside 
the domain of the life to god-ward, all those functions 
which are summed up in what Saint Paul calls the 
flesh and the mind, the psychic and the bodily life, 



THE OLYMPIAN SYSTEM. 379 

the tendency of the system was to exalt the human 
element, by proposing a model of beauty, strength, 
and wisdom, in all their combinations, so elevated, that 
the effort to attain them required a continual upward 
strain. It made divinity attainable ; and thus it effect- 
ually directed the thought and aim of man 

' Along the line of limitless desires/ 

Such a scheme of religion, though failing grossly in 
the government of the passions, and in upholding the 
standard of moral duties, tended powerfully to pro- 
duce a lofty self-respect, and a large, free, and varied 
conception of humanity. It incorporated itself in 
schemes of notable discipline for mind and body, in- 
deed of a lifelong education ; and these habits of mind 
and action had their marked results (to omit many 
other greatnesses) in a philosophy, literature, and art, 
which remain to this day unrivalled or unsurpassed. 

The sacred fire, indeed, that was to touch the mind 
and heart of man from above, was in preparation 
elsewhere. Within the shelter of the hills that stand 
about Jerusalem, the great Archetype of the spiritual 
excellence and purification of man was to be produced 
and matured. But a body, as it were, was to be made 
ready for this angelic soul. And as when some splen- 
did edifice is to be reared, its diversified materials are 
brought from this quarter and from that, according as na- 
ture and man favor their production, so did the wisdom 
of God, with slow but ever sure device, cause to ripen 
amidst the several races* best adapted for the work, the 
several component parts of the noble fabric of a Chris- 
tian manhood and a Christian civilization. 4 The kings 
of Tharsis and of the isles shall give presents : the 



380 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



kings of Arabia and Saba shall bring gifts.' 1 Every 
worker was, with or without his knowledge and his 
will, to contribute to the work. And among them an 
appropriate part was thus assigned both to the Greek 
people, and to what I have termed the Olympian re- 
ligion. 



i Ps. lxxii. 10. 



CHAPTER X. 

Ethics of the Heroic Age. 
Section I. 

In general outline, we may thus sum up the moral 
character of the Homeric Greeks, favorably regarded. 

A high-spirited, energetic, adventurous, and daring 
people, they show themselves prone to acts of hasty 
violence ; and their splendid courage occasionally even 
degenerates, under the influence of strong passion, 
into ferocity, while their acuteness and sagacity some- 
times, though more rarely, take a decided tinge of 
cunning. Yet they are neither selfish, cruel, nor im- 
placable. At the same time, self-command is scarcely 
less conspicuous among them than strong, and deep, 
and quick emotion. They are, in the main, a people 
of warm affections and high honor, commonly tender, 
never morbid : they respect the weak and the helpless ; 
they hold authority in reverence. Domestic purity, 
too, is cherished and esteemed among them more than 
elsewhere ; and they have not yet fallen into the lower 
depths of sensual excess. 

The Greek thanks the gods in his prosperity ; wit- 
ness the case of Laertes. It is perhaps less remark- 



382 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



able that in his adversity he appeals to them for aid. 
If, again, he is discontented, he complains of them; 
for he harbors no concealed dissatisfaction. Ready 
enough to take from those who have, he is at least as 
ready to give to those who need. He represents to the 
life the sentiment which another great master of man- 
ners has given to his Duke of Argyle, in the ' Heart of 
Mid Lothian : ' 4 It is our Highland privilege to take 
from all what we want, and to give to all what they 
want.' 1 Distinctions of class are recognized, but they 
are mild and genial ; there is no arrogance on the one 
side, nor any servility on the other. Reverence is paid 
to those in authority ; and yet the Greek thinks in the 
spirit, and moves in the sphere, of habitual freedom. 
Over and above his warmth and tenacity in domestic 
affections, he prizes highly those other special relations 
between man and man, which mitigate and restrain 
the law of force in societies as yet imperfectly organ- 
ized. He thoroughly admires the intelligence dis- 
played in stratagem, whether among the resources 
of self-defence, or by way of jest upon a friend, or 
for the hurt or ruin of an enemy ; but life in disguise 
he cannot away with, and holds it a prime article in 
his creed that the tongue should habitually represent 
the man. 2 

From these facts, if taken alone, we might be tempted 
to suppose, that the Greeks of the Homeric age were 
an inhuman and savage race, who did not appreciate 
the value of human life. But this is not so. They 
are not a cruel people. There is no wanton infliction 
of pain throughout the whole operations of the Iliad ; 



] Scott's Novels and Tales, 8vo. ed., x. 238. 



2 II. ix. 312. 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 383 



no delight in the sufferings of others, no aggravation 
of them through vindictive passion. The only need- 
less wounds given, are wounds inflicted on the dead 
body of Hector. 1 It seems to be not a disregard of 
human life, but an excess of regard for courage, which 
led them to undervalue the miseries incident to vio- 
lence. 

The character of Heracles, or Hercules, is one of 
which we hear much more evil than good in the 
Poems, if indeed we hear any good at all. The cli- 
max of his misdeeds is in the case of Iphitos, the 
possessor of certain fine mares. Heracles became his 
guest, slew him, and carried off the animals. 2 Yet, he 
is nowhere held up to reprobation. Indeed he seems 
to be a sharer of the banquets of the gods, and has 
Heb£ for his wife; his Shade, or Eidolon, however, 
dwelling in the Underworld. 3 If this passage be genu- 
ine, we can only suppose his crimes to be redeemed, 
in the public judgment, by his courage, together with 
his divine extraction. And the passage is supported 
by the application to him of the epithet theios, which 
is given in the Poems only to the two Protagonists, 
Achilles and Odysseus, among the living, and to the 
most distinguished among the dead. Certainly, the 
indignation of the Greeks is against Paris the effemi- 
nate coward, much more than Paris the ravisher. The 
shame of the abduction lay in the fact that he was the 
guest of Menelaos. 4 And the guilt of Aigisthos finds 
its climax in this, that he slew Agamemnon by stealth, 
at a banquet, like a stalled ox. 5 Piracy, again, was 



i II. xxii. 371. 2 Od. xxi. 24-30. 

3 Od. xi. 601-604. * n m 351-354. 

5 Od. i. 35-37 ; iv. 524-535 ; xi. 409-420. 



384 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



regarded, at the very least, with a moral indifference, 1 
which continued down to the time of Thucydides in 
many parts of Greece. 2 Even Odysseus, the model- 
prince, when he has destroyed the Suitors, and is con- 
sidering how he can repair his wasted substance, 
calculates upon effecting it in part by occasional 
free-booting. 3 To the principle, then, he freely gives 
his sanction ; although he probably attacked the Ki- 
cones as allies of Troy ; 4 and he disapproved, as it 
appears, of the raid upon the Egyptians, which in one 
of his fables he imputes to his ship's company. 5 This 
act is denominated an outrage ; 6 and some disapproval 
of pirates is implied in another passage. 7 But it is 
faint. Piracy was a practice connected on one side 
with trade, and on the other with fighting ; and it 
seems to have been acquitted of guilt for the reason 
that the gains of the pirate's life were the fruit of 
bravery combined with skill, and were not unequally 
balanced by its dangers. And piracy seems to have 
been practised only upon foreigners ; of course such 
foreigners only as did not come within the range . of 
any bond of guestship. 

Religion, however, had a considerable moral force. 

The connection in the age of Homer between duty 
on the one side, and religious belief and reverence on 
the other, is well seen 

(a) Negatively, by the faithlessness and ferocity of 
the Cyclops towards men, while he avows his contempt 
for Zeus and the gods. 8 

(b) By the fact that the persons addicted to sacrifice 

i Od. iii. 72. 2 Thuc. i. 5. 3 Od. xxiii. 357. 

4 Od. ix. 40. 5 Od. xiv. 259 seqq. 6 Od. xiv. 262. 

1 Od. xxiv. 111. 8 Od. ix. 273-280, 356, 368-370. 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



385 



and religious observances are with Homer the upright 
and. good men : such as Hector in the Iliad, and Eu- 
maios in the Odyssey. 1 

(<?) As our word ' righteous,' founded on right, 
and embracing morality, extends also to piety, so 
in Homer the corresponding word dicaios clearly 
embraces duty towards the gods. 2 The Abioi, 3 an 
uncivilized nation, are with him ' the most righteous 
of men.' 

(d~) Conversely, the character of the theoudes, or 
god-revering man, is identified with that of the 
stranger-loving, and opposed to that of the insolent, 
the savage, and the unrighteous. 4 

(e) The wicked man cannot by sacrifices secure the 
fruits of his crime. Aigisthos offers them in abun- 
dance : but the gods destroy him by the hand of 
Orestes. 5 

(/) Though the outward act of sacrifice did not of 
necessity imply a corresponding frame of mind, yet it 
was of religious tendency. The ordinary offering, at the 
common meal, of a portion to the deity as the giver, 
may be compared with the 4 grace ' among Christians. 
In solemn celebrations, and sometimes indeed at the 
private meal, 6 prayer and thanksgiving were commonly 
combined with the rite. 

(cj) The gods, as we have already seen, were thought, 
in a real though incomplete measure, to be rewarders 
of the good, and punishers of the bad. 

(Ji) There was a strong general belief in the efficacy 
of prayer, testified by its practice. 

1 E. xxiv. 68. Od. xiv. 420. 2 Qd. in. 132-136. 

3 II. xiii. 6. 4 od. vi. 120. 

5 Od. iii. 272-275 ; i. 35-43. 6 Od. xiv. 423. 

25 



386 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



We must not deny the reality of moral distinctions 
in Homer upon any such ground as that he sometimes 
describes greatness and strength by names rather de- 
noting virtue, and mentions, for example, the services 
4 which the inferior render to the good.' 1 The language 
even of our own day has not yet escaped from this 
very improper confusion. We still speak of the ' better 
classes,' and of ' good society.' By him, as by us, the 
error is escaped in other cases : for he calls the Suitor- 
Princes 'very inferior men.' 2 And the word agathos, 
or good, has unquestionably in some passages a solely 
moral meaning : 3 while it is never applied to any bad 
man or action, however energetic or successful. 

There was a voice of conscience, and a sentiment 
ranging between reverence and fear, within the breast. 
Sometimes this ascended to a point far higher than 
the mere avoidance of crime. After his conquest of 
the Hupoplakian Thebes, Achilles would not despoil the 
body of the slain king Eetion, and burned it with 
the precious armor on. He was restrained, not by 
general opinion, but by the inward sentiment called 
sebas. 4 To strip the corpse would have been the 
usual course. Telemachos endeavors, of course in 
vain, to arouse in the minds of the Suitors a nemesis 5 
of self-judgment, or sense of the moral law. To this 
nemesis (often inaccurately rendered as revenge) 
Menelaos appeals, when exciting the Greeks to defend 
the body of Patroclos 6 from insult. But the whole 
matter is best learned from an address of Telemachos 
to the Suitors, where he says (a) ' rouse within you of 
yourselves a nemesis (or moral sense) ; and (5) an 



i Od. xv. 324. 2 Od. xxi. 325. 3 II. vi. 162 ; ix. 341. 

4 II. vi. 417. 5 Od. i 138. 6 II. xvii. 254. 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



387 



aldcog ( a sense of honor, or regard to opinion of your 
fellow-citizens).; and (c) fear the wrath of the gods.' 1 
These three principles were the three great pillars of 
morality. The motive of aldcog may be stirred by the 
dijfAov cpdng, or public sentiment, which we find to have 
been an engine of great power with Phoenix, 2 and even 
with Penelope and Nausicaa. This aidos is a senti- 
ment which has ultimate reference to the standard of 
opinion ; but it does not require that opinion to be in 
present and immediate action. It it self-judgment, ac- 
cording to the standard supplied by the ideas of others; 
as nemesis is self-judgment by the inward law. This 
aldcog ranges through a great variety of sub-meanings, — 
deference, tenderness, scrupulosity, compassion, self- 
respect, piety, bashfulness, honor, and every form of 
shame, excepting false shame. Hesiod says in his iron, 
or post-Homeric age, that aldcog, along with vfyacng, had 
vanished from the earth. 

With respect to blood-shedding, the morality of the 
Greeks of Homer was extremely loose. To have killed 
a man was considered a misfortune, or at most an error 
in point of prudence. 3 It was punished by a fine pay- 
able to relatives, which it was usual to accept in full 
satisfaction. But fugitives from their vengeance were 
everywhere received without displeasure or surprise. 
Priam, appearing unexpectedly before Achilles, is com- 
pared to a man who, having had the misfortune to slay 
somebody, appears on a sudden in a strange place. 4 

The cases of such homicides are numerous in the 
Poems. It may be enough to observe that Patroclos, 



i Od. ii. 64-67. 
3 II. ix. 632. 



2 II. ix. 460. 

4 II. xxiv. 480-482. 



388 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



whose character is one of great gentleness, committed 
one in his youth without premeditation, 1 and was 
therefore given over by his father Menoitios into the 
honorable charge of Peleus : that Ajax had received 
Lycophron after homicide, and 6 honored him as if 
a beloved parent:' 2 and that Telemachos receives 
Theoclumenos, and gives him the place of honor, 
when he had simply announced himself as a fugitive 
from the vengeance of the powerful kindred of a man 
whom he had killed, 3 without stating anything about 
the cause. 

It is difficult, however, to trace in Homer the exist- 
ence of an universal law of relative duty, between 
man and man as such. The chief restraints upon mis- 
deeds were to be found in laws, understood but not 
written, and which were binding as between certain 
men, not between all men. These were 

1. Members of a family. 

2. Members of a State or nation. 

3. Persons bound by the law of guestship. 

4. Suppliants and those whom they addressed. 
The weakest point of the Homeric system of ethics 

is its tenderness (to say the least) for fraud under cer- 
tain conditions. This has ever been indeed a difficult 
chapter in the science of Ethics : it is probably one, 
in which the human faculties will ever, or very long, 
remain unequal to the task of drawing at once clearly 
and firmly, in abstract statement, the lines of discrimi- 
nation between right and wrong. In Homer, how- 
ever, we seem to find the balance not doubtfully deter- 
mined, but manifestly inclining the wrong way. Into 

i II. xxiii. 86. 2 ii. xv . 429-440. 3 Od. xv. 260 seqq. 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



389 



the mouth of Achilles, indeed, he has put the most 
powerful denunciation of falsehood ever uttered by 
man. 1 Pope's rendering is not quite unworthy — 

' Who dares think one thing, and another tell, 
My heart detests him as the gates of hell. 

This, however, we may consider as in great part be- 
longing to the single character of Achilles. It is a 
principle worked out in his entire conduct, without 
a single flaw. His soul and actions are sky-clear. 
Among the Homeric deities, there is nothing that 
approaches him in this respect. Indeed it is espe- 
cially in the region of the Immortals that we find the 
plague-spot planted. In Athene, by far the loftiest of 
his Olympian conceptions, we find a distinct conde- 
scension not simply to stratagem, but to fraud : and 
she, with Odysseus, finds a satisfaction, when they 
respectively allow to one another the praise of excel- 
ling all others within this department, she among 
the gods, he among mortal men. 2 

At this we may not be greatly surprised ; for force 
and energy already outweigh the moral element in the 
whole conception of the supernatural: and the char- 
acter of Odysseus, with its many and great virtues, has 
a bias in this direction. But we may be much more 
surprised to find what we may fairly call a glorifica- 
tion of cunning, if not of fraud, exhibited in the char- 
acter of that Greek chieftain, who, next to Achilles, 
may be thought most to approximate to the ideal of 
Homeric chivalry. Diomed meets the noble Glaucos 
on the field : they explain, and recognize as subsisting 



i II. ix. 312 (Pope, v. 412). 



2 Od. xiii. 294 seqq. 



390 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



between them, the laws of hereditary guestship. The 
Greek then proposes the exchange of arms, which 
Glaucos accepts : and Diomed obtains the value of a 
hundred oxen in return for the value of nine. 

We may, however, observe, that Achilles, in whom 
comes out the bright blaze of perfect openness and 
truth, is not only the Coryphaeus of the Greek band 
of heroes, but he is above all things the type of 
Hellenism ; the model of that character, which Homer 
considered to belong to his race. And, as far as we 
can perceive, though there is a delight in the use of 
deceit as stratagem for a particular end, the general 
course of thought is unreserved and open : the Poems 
show us nothing like life in a mask. 

The idea of sin, considered as an offence against 
the divine order, has by no means been effaced from 
the circle of moral ideas in Homer. It seems to be 
strongly implied in the word draadali?], which is applied 
to deep, deliberate wickedness ; to sinning against 
light ; to doing what, but for a guilty ignorance, we 
must know to be wrong. For, when it is intended to 
let in any allowance for mere weakness, or for solici- 
tation from without, or for a simply foolish blindness, 
then the word atrj is used. And I doubt whether, in 
any one instance throughout the Poems, these two 
designations are ever applied to one and the same mis- 
conduct. It is certainly contrary to the general, and 
almost universal, rule. The atasthalie is something 
done with clear sight and knowledge, with the full and 
conscious action of the will : it is something regarded 
as wholly without excuse, as tending to an entire moral 
deadness, and as entailing final punishment alike with- 
out warning and without mercy. Nothing can account 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



391 



for the introduction into a moral code of a form of 
offence conceived with such intensity, and ranked so 
high, except the belief that the man committing it had 
deliberately set aside that inward witness to truth and 
righteousness which is supplied by the law of our 
nature, and in the repudiation of which the universal 
and consentient voice of mankind has always placed 
the most awful responsibility, the extremest degree of 
guilt, that the human being can incur. 

The wicked man, thus hardened in his deliberate 
wickedness (ataaOaXiri)^ is then driven on by the deity, 
that is, as we should say, by a divine order and dis- 
pensation, in his mad career. Of this penal mechan- 
ism Athene^ is, in the Odyssey, the instrument. . When 
the stool has been hurled at Odysseus disguised in his 
own house, and the insolence of the Suitors has reached 
its height, Telemachos tells them 4 ye are mad with ex- 
cess of food and wine : some deity now drives you.' 1 
Before this we are told 'Athene^ would not let the 
haughty Suitors stop in their biting insolence.' 2 And 
when Amphinomos has received the friendly but very 
solemn warning of Odysseus, 3 he is shaken inwardly, 
and a presentiment of calamity presses on him. Here 
the Poet goes beyond that 4 hardening of Pharaoh's 
heart,' with which a comparison is naturally suggested, 
and indicates that, even while he was suffering this 
pain, which may almost be construed into a state of 
indecision, Athend held him entangled inwardly in the 
meshes of his guilt, that he might be conquered by 
Telemachos. 4 The subsequent attempt of Amphi- 
nomos to restrain outrageous excess appears to show, 



1 Od. xviii. 406. 
3 Od. xviii. 125-150. 



2 Od. xviii. 346. 
4 Od. xviii. 155. 



392 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



that he was still at this time halting between two 
opinions. The sentiment of the Poet, usually so just, 
appears here even to tremble on the verge of a dark 
fatalism. But this belongs to ulterior and later pro- 
cesses of thought. What we have here to notice is, 
how very deeply the idea of moral guilt was engraven 
in the mind of the Poet, and therefore probably of 
his age. 

The peculiar word atasthalie is chiefly used by 
Homer to describe the prolonged and hardened wicked- 
ness of the Suitors. The weakest case of its applica- 
tion is to the obstinate folly of Hector in refusing the 
counsel of Poludamas, and thus ruining the Trojan 
cause : 1 but here it is applied by the hero himself, not 
by any one else to him. 

The view of patience in the Ethics of Homer is a 
very noble one. It is with him a prime virtue. In- 
deed, the characteristic merit of one of the Protagonists, 
Odysseus, is to be patient (nolvrlag)^ as his distinguish- 
ing intellectual endowment is to be nokv^xiq ; resource- 
ful, elastic, versatile. This patience of the Homeric 
hero is as far as possible from being a mere acquiescence 
in fatality, or a cowardly retirement from the battle 
of life in order to put the soul to sleep. It is full of 
reason and feeling ; it involves and largely partakes of 
self-restraint ; it might almost be defined as moral 
courage. It is an active, not a passive function of the 
mind. Its action, indeed, is generally confined to the 
inward sphere. Yet it is not always so confined. 2 And 
it is always on the verge of, and ever capable of being 
developed into, the most heroic energy. 



i II. xxii. 104. 



2 II. xxiv. 505. 



ETHICS OP THE HEROIC AGE. 



393 



The sense of justice is also very strong in the poems. 
Agamemnon indeed is unjust, as well as rapacious ; 
but, notwithstanding his sense of responsibility, and 
his fraternal affection, Agamemnon is not a character 
towards whom Homer intends to attract our sympathies. 
The Greek chieftains seem never among themselves to 
deviate from fairness, except in the case of the chariot- 
race. It is singular that three thousand years ago, as 
now, horse-racing should have been found to offer the 
subtlest temptations to the inward integrity of man. 
The winning positions of Diomed 1 and Eumelos in the 
race are reversed by a divine intervention, which 
throws Eumelos into the very last place. And it seems 
to be from a sense of substantial justice that Achilles 
proposes to commit what would have been a technical 
breach of it by giving him the second honor. But 
Antilochos, who has gained the third place against 
Menelaos by a sheer trick, remonstrates; and Achilles, 
with his supreme courtesy, introduces for Eumelos an 
additional prize to avoid even the semblance of wrong. 
Then comes the turn of Menelaos, who vehemently 
protests against the proceeding of Antilochos. The 
young warrior, who had been greatly excited against 
Eumelos, at once acknowledges the justice of the com- 
plaint, and offers to give Menelaos not only the prize in 
question, but anything else that he possesses, rather 
than offend him. Upon this Menelaos, not to be out- 
done in the contest of high manners, and without doubt 
recollecting that all his competitors are suffering in the 
war on his behalf, at once surrenders the second prize 
and takes the third. Thus, notwithstanding the device 



i II. xxiii. 373-402. 



394 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



effected in the race itself, a strong sense of right pre- 
dominates in the whole scene of the distribution, and 
governs the final adjustment. 

The high estimate of the virtue of justice, thus ob- 
servable, perhaps connects itself with that strong po- 
litical genius which had already found development 
among the Greeks, inasmuch as justice is -to political 
society as its vital spark. But again, justice is moral 
symmetry; and in it the exact spirit of the Greek 
would, on this ground, find at least a strong specula- 
tive satisfaction, which would help to determine the 
habits of the mind and life. 

The idea of self-restraint, which seems to admit only 
of a limited application to the order of deities, is ex- 
ceeding strong in the Homeric man, where he at all 
approaches excellence. Hence we find, in various 
forms, excess among the Immortals, such as would not 
have been tolerated in the Achaian circle. The howl- 
ing of Ares 1 in pain when wounded, his loss of all 
power of reflection on learning the death of his son, 2 
and the license which prevailed among the gods, with 
only few exceptions, in matters relating to sexual 
passion, are striking examples. But the same observa- 
tion may be made in lesser matters. Inextinguishable 
laughter is excited in the Olympian Court, when the 
gods see Hephaistos limp about to minister the wine. 
But the Achaians never laugh with violence. If there 
could.be a case warranting it at all, it would be one 
like that of Oilean Ajax, when he slipped and fell 
amidst the orolure. 3 Even here, however, self-control 
is not lost. They only smiled, or laughed mildly or 
gently (jdv yekaaaav), at the strange predicament. 4 

i II. y. 860 2 H. xv. 115. 3 H. xxiii. 777. 4 II. xxiii. 784. 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



395 



The self-command of heroes, which is thus observ- 
able in minor matters, extends also to the greatest. 
When we find any virtue prominently exhibited in the 
two Protagonists, we may without more ado be certain 
that Homer intends to give it a very high place. And 
by far the greatest instances of self-command are given 
us in these two characters. On this basis is founded 
the singular courtesy of Achilles, in the midst of his 
resentment, to the heralds who came by order of Aga- 
memnon to remove Briseis. 1 When he was in danger 
of losing himself for the moment, on the occasion of 
the First Assembly, a divine interposition took place to 
enable him to hold his equilibrium. And many times, 
when he feels the tide of wrath rising within him, he 
seems to eye his own passion as the tiger is eyed by its 
keeper, and puts a spell upon it so that it dare not 
spring. When, for example, he is sensible that the 
incautious words of Priam 2 are kindling within him a 
fire that might blast the aged suppliant, he seizes the 
•moment, and, ere it is yet too late, bids him to desist. 
Whenever, after the death of Patroclos, his mind goes 
back upon the thought of Agamemnon and the wrong, 
he breaks sharply away from the subject. 3 So it is with 
this tempestuous character. But not less remarkable 
is the self-command of Odysseus. This extends to all 
circumstances : it suffices alike for the cave of Polu- 
phemos ; for enforcing silence in the body of the wooden 
horse ; for bearing in his disguise the insults of the 
Suitors. But most of all in point is that wonderful 
speech in answer to the insolence of Eurualos, 4 the 



i II. i. 329-336. 2 n. xxiv . 560 . 

3 II. xvi. 60 ; xviii. 112 ; xix. 65. * Od. viii. 165-1 85. 



396 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Phaiakian prince, which teaches us more than any com- 
position with which I am acquainted, up to what a 
point emotion, sarcasm, and indignation can be carried 
without any loss of self-command. 

The fiery Diomed also offers us, in his submission to 
the reproof of Agamemnon, a fine example of this 
great quality. 1 But in truth it extends to the army, 
that is, the nation. We see it in their stern silence on 
the march, and in the battle-field. And their manner 
of applause in the Assembly is always described by a 
term different from that which the Poet uses to de- 
scribe the corresponding indication of feeling among 
the Trojans. The Greeks usually shouted (htla%ov) 
their applause ; the Trojans rattled or clattered it 
QmxelddriOav) . 

In truth, there lies at the root of the Homeric model 
of the good or the great man, in a practical form, that 
which Aristotle has expressed scientifically as a con- 
dition of moral virtue ; a spirit of moderation, a love 
of to (A860V, or the mean. There should be moderation 
in sorrow, 2 moderation in wrath, moderation in pleas- 
ure. Not a mean between extremes of mere quantity ; 
but a true mean, an inward equipoise of the mind, 
and in the composition of mental qualities, abhorring 
excess in any one of them, because it mars the com- 
bination as a whole, and throws the rest into deficiency. 
This sentiment is conveyed by Homer in a multitude 
of slight and fine shadings of expression, like that 
insensible action of the hand in driving which keeps 
a straight instead of a fluctuating line. We trace it in 
the frequent expression ovds hmsv : in evaicipog : in the 



i IL iv. 411-418. 



2 II. xxiv. 419. 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



397 



nvY.ivov heog : in the yQijv fynedog : in the censnre implied 
by fir/a sgyov, and in a multitude of other expressions. 

This being so, it follows that one of the qualities 
most unequivocally vicious in Homer is an absolute 
implacability; that state of mind towards which 
Achilles for a time appears to lean ; first, with regard 
to the Greeks, secondly, with regard to Hector ; to 
both the living and the dead. It is a sin against Na- 
ture, rather than one of mere infirmity ; because the 
very first requisite of such a feeling, to give it even 
colorable justice, is that the person entertaining it 
should himself be without fault, or weakness, or short- 
coming of whatever kind. 

This law, of moderation in quantity, was bodily as 
well as mental. Homer sings the praises of wine ; 
but he reprehends even that mild form of excess which 
does no more than promote garrulity. 1 When the 
Greeks are about to suffer calamity in the Return, he 
lets them go in a state of drunkenness to their Assem- 
bly. 2 Elpenor dies by an accidental fall from drunk- 
enness, and his character is accordingly described in 
terms of disparagement. 3 A legend is introduced to 
show the mischief of this vice, which even the Suitor 
Antinoos condemns. 4 No character esteemed by the 
Poet ever acts in any matter under the influence of 
liquor. It was for him the dew, not the deluge, of the 
soul ; and it was nothing more. The gods indeed sit 
by the bowl the livelong day ; 5 but for men it is not 
seemly to tarry for hours at the sacred (that is regular 
and public) feast. And this, not only in cases like 



i Od. xiv. 463-466. 

3 Od. x. 552-560 ; xi. 61. 

5 II. i. 601. 



2 Od. iii. 139. 

4 Od. xxi. 293-304. 



398 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



that of wine, where the truth is obvious, and the excess 
repulsive ; but in instances where it would less be 
expected. ' Do not go to bed too soon : excess of sleep 
is itself dnfj, a trouble.' 1 6 Do not admire,' says 
Odysseus, 4 or wonder at your father to excess.' 2 6 1 
disapprove,' says Menelaos, 3 6 of excess, either in at- 
tachments or in aversions : better to have all things 
in moderation.' The exact word is cc'impa, according 
to aha, which may be said to signify the moral element 
of measure, order, just proportion, in fate. 

This general disinclination to excess is happily ex- 
emplified in relation to excess of wickedness. 

The extremest forms of human depravity are un- 
known to the practice of the Greeks in the Homeric 
age. We find among them no infanticide ; no canni- 
balism ; no practice, or mention, of unnatural lusts : 
incest is profoundly abhorred, and even its uninten- 
tioned commission in the case of Oidipous and Epicast£ 
was visited with the heaviest calamities. The old age 
of parents is treated with respect and affection. Sla- 
very itself is mild ; and predial slavery apparently 
rare. There is no polygamy ; no domestic concubi- 
nage ; no torture. There are no human sacrifices ; 
and even down to the time of Euripides the tradition 
subsisted that they were not a Greek but a foreign 
usage. 4 The legend of the seizure of Ganymedes, 
which was afterwards deeply tainted with shame, is in 
Homer perfectly beautiful and pure. Adultery is de- 
tested. The lifelong bond of man and wife does not 
wholly yield even to violence : absence the most pro- 
longed does not shake it off : and there is no escape 

i Od. xv. 394. 2 od. xvi. 202, 203. 3 Od. xv. 70. 

4 Eurip. Iphig. in Aul. edog p/ Trarpiov. 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



399 



from it by the at best poor and doubtful invention of 
divorce. 

There is undoubtedly something savage in the wrath 
of Odysseus against the Suitors, as there is in the 
wrath of Achilles against Agamemnon and the Greeks. 
Neither of these two is represented to us as a faultless 
personage. But when they err, it is in measure and 
degree ; in the exaggeration of what, as to its essence, 
virtue justifies, and even requires. But an exceeding 
nobleness marks the rebuke of Odysseus to the Nurse 
Eurucleia, when she is about to shout in exultation 
over the fallen Suitors. 4 It is wrong,' he says, 1 ' to 
exult over the slain, who have been overthrown by 
divine providence, and by their own perverse deeds.' 

So again, while Hecuba wishes she could find it in 
her heart to eat Achilles, Achilles 2 utters a similar 
wish with regard to Hector. But the wish is that he 
could prevail upon himself to perform the act ; which 
accordingly he cannot do. From these passages, as 
well as from the case of the Cyclops, we may learn that 
cannibalism was within the knowledge, though not the 
experience, of the nation ; that it might even come 
before them as an image in the hideous dreams of pas- 
sion at seasons of extreme excitement, but never could 
enter the circle of their actual life. 

Indeed, the manifestations of mere personal revenge 
in the Poems are almost wholly among the divinities, 
not the mortals. The vengeance of Achilles has refer- 
ence not to an arbitrary or imaginary code, but to a 
gross breach by Agamemnon of the laws of honor and 
justice. The vengeance of Odysseus vindicates not 



i Od. xxii. 412. 



2 II. xxii. 346. 



400 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



merely the duty of political obedience, but the violated 
order of society, against depraved and lawless men. 

The point, however, in which the ethical tone of the 
heroic age stands highest of all is, perhaps, the strength 
of the domestic affections. 

They are prevalent in Olympos ; and they constitute 
an amiable feature in the portraiture even of deities 
who have nothing else to recommend them. Not only 
does Poseidon care for the brutal Poluphemos, and 
Zeus for the noble and gallant Sarpedon, but Ar£s for 
Ascalaphos, and Aphrodite for iEneas. In the Trojan 
royal family, there is little of the higher morality ; but 
parental affection is vehement in the characters, some- 
what relaxed as they are in fibre, both of Priam and 
of Hecuba. Odysseus chooses for the title, by which 
he would be known, that of the Father of Telemachos. 1 
, The single portraiture of Penelope^, ever yearning 
through twenty years for her absent husband, and then 
praying to be removed from, life, that she may never 
gladden the spirit of a meaner man, could not have 
been designed or drawn, except in a country where the 
standard, in this great branch of morality, was a high 
one. This is the palmary and all-sufficient instance. 
Others might be mentioned to follow, though none can 
equal it. 

Perhaps even beyond other cases of domestic rela- 
tion, the natural, sentiment, as between parents and 
children, was profoundly ingrained in the morality of 
the heroic age. The feeling of Achilles for Peleus, of 
Odysseus for his father Laertes and his mother An- 
ticleia, exhibits an affection alike deep and tender. 



i II. ii. 260. 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



401 



Those who die young, like Simoeisios 1 by the hand of 
Ajax, die before they have had time to repay to their 
parents their threptra, the pains and care of rearing 
them. Phoenix, in the height of wrath with his father, 
and in a country where homicide was thought a ca- 
lamity far more than a crime, is restrained from offer- 
ing him any violence, lest he should be branded, among 
the Achaians, with the stamp of parricide. 2 All this 
was reciprocated on the side of parents : even in Troy, 
as we may judge from the conduct and words of Hec- 
tor, 3 of Andromache, 4 of Priam. 5 While the father of 
Odysseus pined on earth for his return, his mother 
died of a broken heart for his absence. 6 And the 
Shade of Achilles in the Underworld only craves to 
know whether Peleus is still held in honor ; and a 
momentary streak of light and joy gilds his dreary and 
gloomy existence, when he learns that his son Neop- 
tolemos has proved himself worthy of his sire, and 
has attained to fame in war. The very selfish nature 
of Agamemnon does not prevent his feeling a watchful 
anxiety for his brother Menelaos. 7 Where human 
interests spread and ramify by this tenacity of domes- 
tic affections, there the generations of men are firmly 
knit together ; concern for the future becomes a spring 
of noble action ; affection for the past engenders an 
emulation of its greatness ; and as it is in history that 
these sentiments find their means of, subsistence, the 
primitive poet of such a country scarcely can but be 
an historian. 

i II. iv. 473-479. 2 ii. i x . 459-461. 3 n. v i. 476. 

4 II. xxii. 438-507. 5 II. xxii. 424. 6 Od. xi. 196, 202. 

1 II. x. 234-240. 

26 



402 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



We do not find, indeed, that relationships are traced 
in Homer by name beyond the degree of first cousins. 1 
But that the tie of blood was much more widely recog- 
nized, we may judge from the passage in the Second 
Iliad, which shows that the divisions of the army were 
subdivided into tribes (yvlct) and clans (cpQtjtQai) . 2 
Guestship likewise descended through generations : 
Diomed and Glaucos exchange arms, and agree to 
avoid one another in fight, because their grandfathers 
had been xenoi. 3 

The intensity of the Poet's admiration for beautiful 
form is exhibited alike with reference to men, women, 
and animals. Achilles, his greatest warrior, is also 
his most beautiful man : Ajax, the second soldier, has 
also the second place in beauty according to Odysseus. 4 
Nireus, his rival for that place, is commemorated for his 
beauty, though in other respects he is declared to have 
been an insignificant personage. 5 Odysseus, elderly, 
if not old, is carried into rapture by the beauty of 
Nausicaa. 6 Not Helen alone, but his principal women 
in general, short of positive old age (for Penelope is 
included), are beautiful. He felt intensely, as appears 
from many passages, the beauty of the horse. But this 
admiring sentiment towards all beauty of form appears 
to have been an entirely pure one. His only licentious 
episode, that of the Net of Hephaistos, he draws from 
an Eastern mythology. He recounts it as sung before 
men only, not women ; and not in Greece, but in 
Scherie, to an audience of Phoenician extraction and 
associations. It is in Troy that the gloating eyes of 



i II. xv. 419-422, 525, 554. 
» II. vi. 215, 224—231. 
5 II. ii. 671-675. 



2 II. ii. 362. 
4 Ocl. xi. 550. 
6 Od. vi. 151-169. 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



403 



the old men follow Helen as she walks. 1 The only 
Greeks, to whom the like is imputed, are the dissolute 
and hateful Suitors of the Odyssey. The proceedings 
of Here in the Fourteenth Iliad are strictly subordinated 
to policy. They are scarcely decent ; and a single 
sentiment of Thetis may be criticised. 2 But the obser- 
vations I would offer are, first that all the questionable 
incidents or sentiments are in the sphere of the my- 
thology, which in several important respects tended 
to corrupt, and not to elevate, mankind. Secondly, how 
trifling an item do they contribute to the great Ency- 
clopaedia of human life, which is presented to us in the 
Poems. Thirdly, even among the great writers of the 
Christian ages, how few will abide the application of a 
rigid test in this respect so well as Homer. And lastly, 
let us observe the thorough rectitude of purpose which 
governs the Poems : where Artemis, the severely pure, 
is commonly represented as an object of veneration, 
but Aphroditd is as commonly represented in such a 
manner as to attract aversion or contempt : and when, 
among human characters, no licentious act is ever so 
exhibited, as to confuse or pervert the sense of right 
and wrong. The Poet's treatment of Paris on earth, 
whom he has made his only contemptible prince or 
warrior, is in strict keeping with his treatment of 
Aphrodite among Immortals. 

With regard to anything which is unbecoming in 
the human person, the delicacy of Homer is uniform 
and perhaps unrivalled. In the case of women, there 
is not a single allusion to it. In the case of men, the 
only allusions we find are grave, and admirably handled. 



i II. iii. 156-158. 



2 II. xxiv. 130. 



404 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



When Odysseus threatens to strip Thersites, it is only 
to make him an object of general and unmitigated 
disgust. 1 When Priam foretells the mangling of his 
own naked corpse by animals, 2 the insult to natural 
decency thus anticipated serves only to express the in- 
tense agony of his mind. The scene in which Odysseus 
emerges from the sea on the coast of Scheri£, is perhaps 
among the most careful, and yet the most simple and 
unaffected, exhibitions of true modesty in all literature. 
And the mode, in which all this is presented to us, 
suggests that it forms a true picture of the general 
manners of the nation at the time. That this delicacy 
long subsisted in Greece, we learn from Thucydides. 3 
The morality of the Homeric period is that of the 
childhood of a race : the morality of the classic times 
belongs to its manhood. On the side of the latter, 
it may be urged that two causes in particular tend to 
raise its level. With regular forms of political and 
civil organization, there grows up in written law a 
public testimonial on behalf, in the main, of truth, 
honesty, and justice. For, while private conduct rep- 
resents the human mind under the bias of every temp- 
tation, the law, as a general rule, speaks that which 
our perceptions would affirm were there no such bias. 
But further, with law and order comes the clearer 
idea and fuller enjoyment of the fruits of labor; and 
for the sake of security each man adopts, and in gen- 
eral acts upon, a recognition of the rights of property 
These are powerful agencies for good in a great depart- 
ment of morals. Besides these, with a more imposing 
beauty, but probably with less of practical efficacy, 



i II. ii. 262. 



2 II. xxii. 74-76. 



3 i. 6. 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



405 



the speculative intellect of man goes to work, and 
establishes abstract theories of virtue, vice, and their 
consequences, which by their comprehensiveness and 
method put out of countenance the indeterminate eth- 
ics of remote antiquity. All this is to be laid in one 
scale. But the other would, I think, preponderate, if 
it were only from the single consideration, that the creed 
of the Homeric age brought both the sense and the 
dread of the divine justice to bear in restraint of vice 
and passion. And upon the whole, after the survey 
which has been taken, it would in my opinion be some- 
what rash to assert, that either the duties of men to the 
deity, or the larger claims of man upon man, were 
better understood in the age of Pericles or Alexander, 
of Sylla or Augustus, than in the age of Homer. 

Perhaps the following sketch of Greek life in the 
heroic age may not be far wide of the truth. 

The youth of high birth, not then so widely, as now 
separated from the low, is educated under tutors in 
reverence for his parents, and in desire to emulate 
their fame ; he shares in manly and in graceful sports ; 
acquires the use of arms ; hardens himself in the pur- 
suit, then of all others the most indispensable, the 
hunting down of wild beasts ; gains the knowledge of 
medicine, probable also of the lyre. Sometimes, with 
many-sided intelligence, he even sets himself to learn 
how to build his own house or ship, or how to drive the 
plough firm and straight down the furrow, as well as 
to reap the standing corn. 1 

And, when scarcely a man, he bears arms for his 
country or his tribe, takes part in its government, 



i Od. xviii. 366-375. 



406 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



learns by direct instruction, and by practice, how to 
rule mankind through the use of reasoning and persua- 
sive power in political assemblies, attends and assists 
in sacrifices to the gods. For, all this time, he has 
been in kindly and free relations, not only with his 
parents, his family, his equals of his own age, but with 
the attendants, although they are but serfs, who have 
known him from infancy on his father's domain. 

He is indeed mistaught with reference to the use of 
the strong hand. Human life is cheap ; so cheap that 
even a mild and gentle youth may be betrayed, upon a 
casual quarrel over some childish game with his friend, 
into taking it away. And even so throughout his life, 
should some occasion come that stirs up his passions 
from their depths, a wild beast, as it were, awakes 
within him, and he loses his humanity for the time, 
until reason has re-established her control. Short, 
however, of such a desperate crisis, though he could 
not for the world rob his friend or his neighbor, yet 
he might be not unwilling to triumph over him to higf 
cost, for the sake of some exercise of signal ingenuity ; 
while, from a hostile tribe or a foreign shore, or from 
the individual who has become his enemy, he will 
acquire by main force what he can, nor will he scruple 
to inflict on him by stratagem even deadly injury. 1 
He must, however, give liberally to those who are in 
need ; to the wayfarer, to the poor, to the suppliant 
who begs from him shelter and protection. On the 
other hand, should his own goods be wasted, the liberal 
and open-handed contributions of his neighbors will 
not be wanting to replace them. 

l Od. xiii. 252-270. 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



407 



His early youth is not solicited into vice by finding 
sensual excess in vogue, or the opportunities of it 
glaring in his eye, and sounding in his ear. Gluttony 
is hardly known ; drunkenness is marked only by its 
degrading character, and by the evil consequences that 
flow so straight from it ; and it is abhorred. But he 
loves the genial use of meals, and rejoices in the hour 
when the guests, gathered in his father's hall, enjoy a 
liberal hospitality ? and the wine mantles in the cup. 1 
For then they listen to the strains of the minstrel, who 
celebrates before them the newest and the dearest of the 
heroic tales that stir their blood, and rouse their manly 
resolution to be worthy, in their turn, of their country 
and their country's heroes. He joins the dance in the 
festivals of religion ; the maiden's hand upon his wrist, 
and the gilded knife gleaming from his belt, as they 
course from point to point, or wheel in round on round. 2 
That maiden, some Nausicaa, or some Hermione of a 
neighboring district, in due time he weds, amidst the 
rejoicings of their families, and brings her home to 
cherish her, * from the flower to the ripeness of the 
grape,' with respect, fidelity, and love. 

Whether as a governor or as governed, politics bring 
him, in ordinary circumstances, no great share of 
trouble. Government is a machine, of which the wheels 
move easily enough ; for they are well oiled by sim- 
plicity of usages, ideas, and desires ; by unity of inter- 
est ; by respect for authority, and for those in whose 
hands it is reposed ; by love of the common country, 
the common altar, the common Festivals and Games, 
to which already there is large resort. In peace he 



i Od. ix. 5-11 ; xiv. 193-198. 



2 II. xviii. 594-602. 



408 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



settles the disputes of his people, in war he lends them 
the precious example of heroic daring. He consults 
them, and advises with them, on all grave affairs ; and 
his wakeful care for their interests is rewarded by the 
ample domains which are set apart for the prince by 
the people. 1 Finally, he closes his eyes, delivering 
over the sceptre to his son, and leaving much peace 
and happiness around him. 2 

Such was, probably, the state of society amidst the 
concluding phase of which Homer's youth, at least, 
was passed. But a dark and deep social revolution 
seems to have followed the Trojan war ; we have its work- 
ings already become visible in the Odyssey. Scarcely 
could even Odysseus cope with it, contracted though it 
was for him within the narrow bounds of Ithaca. On 
the mainland, the bands of the elder society are soon 
wholly broken. The Pelopid, Neleid, CEnid houses, 
are a wreck : disorganization invites the entry of new 
forces to control it ; the Dorian lances bristle on the 
iEtolian beach, and the primitive Greece, the patriar- 
chal Greece, the Greece of Homer, is no more. 

Section II. 

We must not dismiss the subject of Ethics or mor- 
als without considering what is both a criterion and 
an essential part of it, namely, the position held by 
Woman in the heroic age. 3 

Within the pale of that civilization, which has grown 



1 II. ix. 580; xii, 313. 2 Od. xxiii. 281-284. 

3 For a fuller exposition, see Studies on Homer, Olympos, sect. 9. 
See also Mr. Buckle's Lecture on Woman, in Frazer's Magazine. 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



409 



up under the combined influence of the Christian 
religion as paramount, and what may be called the 
Teutonic manners as secondary, we find the idea of 
Woman and her social position raised to a point higher 
than in the Poems of Homer. But it would be hard to 
discover any period of history, or country of the world, 
not being Christian, in which women stood so high as 
with the Greeks of the heroic age. 

I will here very briefly illustrate this proposition 
under several heads ; and first, that of marriage with 
its accessories. 

The essence of Homeric marriage seems to have 
lain in cohabitation, together with a solemn public 
acknowledgment of the relation of the parties as man 
and wife, and with an attendant ceremonial such as 
is represented on the Shield of Achilles. This might 
apparently be preceded by cohabitation with the in- 
tention of marriage. Hence Briseis is called by 
Achilles his wife; 1 yet in the very same speech he 
speaks of himself as open to marriage with another 
woman; and Briseis, in her lament over Patroclos, 
says, 2 ' Thou wouldst not let me weep, but saidst thou 
wouldst make me the wife of Achilles, and take me by 
ship to Phthi£, and feast (i.e. celebrate) my marriage 
among the Myrmidons.' So that the full accomplish- 
ment of the union was apparently to follow the ex- 
pected return; and she was in the meantime a wife- 
designate. 

It is in the interest of the woman that the law of 
marriage should be strict, and that marriage should be 

1 II. ix. 335, 340 seqq. 

2 II. xix. 295 seqq. I omit the word Kovpidcqv, which would require 
a discussion. 



410 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



single. Among the Homeric Greeks we have not the 
slightest trace of polygamy; or of a woman taken from 
her husband, and made the wife of another man during 
his lifetime. The Suitors always urge Penelope" to 
re-marry, on the ground that Odysseus must be dead, 
and that there is no hope of his return. A shorter 
period of absence, than that assigned to him, is recog- 
nized by the law of England as making re-marriage 
legal. A presumption of death brought near to cer- 
tainty must, under the conditions of human affairs, be 
taken to suffice; for, says Butler, with a sweep of com- 
prehensive wisdom, ' Probability is the very guide of 
life.' 1 But in the case of Agamemnon, there was no 
presumption of death ; and, accordingly, the act of 
Aigisthos is described by Zeus as a double outrage, 
made up of two crimes; the last part of it being the 
murder, but the first the simple fact of the marriage. 2 

Even the violent bodily abstraction of the wife, as in 
the case of Helen, does no more than destroy the mar- 
riage for the time. When she is recovered, she re- 
sumes her domestic place. There is no such thing as a 
formal and final dissolution of a marriage, except by 
death. In the narrative, and by the Trojans, as well 
as by herself, Helen is called the wife of Paris ; yet we 
never find this acknowledgment in the mouth of a 
Greek. Nay, Hector even calls Helen the wife of 
Menelaos : 3 but this may mean the past wife. Mene- 
laos never treats what had occurred as setting him free 
from his obligations to Helen. And the long resistance 
of Penelope, presented to us in the Odyssey as a central 



1 Introduction to the Analogy. 
3 II. iii. 53. 



2 Od. i. 36. 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



411 



object of our interest and admiration, could not have 
been chosen for this purpose by the poet, unless it had 
been in conformity with the actual Greek idea of a gen- 
uine and lofty virtue. 

Concubinage is practised by some few, and as far as 
we are informed only by few, of the Greek chieftains 
before Troy: yet this also is single. Of actual domes- 
tic concubinage we have no example. But Agamem- 
non threatens to take Briseis home with him. 1 This, 
however, is done under angry excitement. In the As- 
sembly, he thinks it necessary to give the reason of a 
proceeding, which he apparently perceived would re- 
quire a justification; and it is, that he prefers her in 
all respects to Clutaimnestra. But we have no trace, 
in the Eeturn, of any chief's carrying a concubine 
home with him. The wife of Amuntor adopted an ex- 
treme measure to prevent her husband from falling 
into a lawless connection; 2 and Laertes, from an ap- 
prehension of conjugal trouble, respected the maiden- 
hood of his young bondwoman. 3 These instances, if 
they show that the man was not exempt from passion, 
bear very emphatic testimony to the position of the 
wife. 

The relations of youth and maiden generally are 
indicated with extreme beauty and tenderness in the 
Iliad; 4 and those of the unmarried woman to a suitor, 
or probable spouse, are so portrayed, in the case of the 
incomparable Nausicaa, as to show a delicacy and free- 
dom that no period of history or state of manners can 
surpass. 5 On her return home, Alkinoos, far from re- 



l II. i. 29, 113. 2 II. ix. 451. 

4 II. xviii. 567, 593 ; xxii. 127, 128. 



8 Od. i. 433. 

5 Od. vi. 275-288. 



412' 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



proving her, thinks she should have shown more for- 
wardness to entertain the shipwrecked stranger. We 
often hear of a parent, who gives or promises a daugh- 
ter in marriage : but like expressions 1 are applied to 
sons. The very fact that the profligate and violent 
Suitors always confine themselves to a moral pressure, 
and profess to submit to the choice of Penelope, is of 
itself a probable witness to the recognized free-agency 
of the woman of the period. 

In that early state of society we hear of no such 
personage as an elderly bachelor or spinster. Nor, 
within due limits of age, could there, I presume, be a 
prolonged widowhood. The apparent connection of 
Helen with Deiphobos, 2 after the death of Paris, should 
probably be read in the light of Trojan usage. But 
whenever Penelope, or others in her name, contemplate 
the death of Odysseus, and her consequent release, that 
change is always treated as the immediate preface to 
another crisis, in the choice of a second husband. 

Marriage, in Homer, is the very pivot of life. War 
is the deadly enemy of woman. On the capture of a 
city, her lot is exile, and the conqueror's bed. The 
familiarity of this idea renders it remarkable that we 
should not hear much more than we do hear of con- 
cubinage among the Greeks of Homer. Of professional 
prostitution, we have no trace at all. 

As the restraints imposed upon marriage are in gen- 
eral among the proofs of its high estimation, I proceed 
to observe that the Greeks regarded incest with hor- 
ror, even when, as in the instance of Oidipous and 
Epicaste, it was involuntary. Passing on from ex- 

i II. ix. 394. Od. iv. 10. 2 Od. iv. 276. 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



413 



treme cases, we may observe, that the connection of 
Phoenix with a woman at once presented an insur- 
mountable bar to the unlawful passion of his. father 
for the same person. It appears however probable, 
though not certain, that Diomed was married to his 
mother's sister. 1 In Scherid, the king Alkinoos had 
his niece for his wife : 2 but this is in the Phoenician 
circle. In Troy, Iphidamas marries the sister of his 
mother. 3 

It is observed that, in the classical period, the law 
of incest in Greece, instead of being tightened, was 
relaxed. 4 The older sentiment about it is the more re- 
markable, because of the extreme looseness of the code 
applied to supernatural beings. 5 

A series of words for the different relationships by 
affinity, includes the word einater for the husband's 
brother's wife, to which we have no correlative in Eng- 
lish; and the terms, in which these relationships are 
spoken of, testify to the definiteness and solidity of the 
marriage bond. 

We have a single case of a woman who attempts 
the breach of her own marriage-vow. It is Anteia, the 
wife of Proitos ; but the family was Phoenician. 

Thus, then, we have in the Poems a picture of Greek 
marriage as to its unity, freedom, perpetuity; as to the 
restraints upon it, and as to the manner in which 
breaches of it, and substitutes for it, were regarded. 
This picture, so striking in itself, becomes yet more 
so by comparison with Eastern manners, even as they 
were exhibited in the Hebrew race. It is also in glar- 

1 II. v. 412 ; xiv. 121. 2 Od. vii. 65, 66. 

3 II. xi. 220-226. * Friedreich's Realien, iii. 2. 

5 II. iv. 441 ; xvi. 432. Od. x. 7. 



414 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



ing and painful contrast with the lowered estimate of 
woman among the Greeks of the classical period, and 
with their loathsome immorality. 

More important, however, than any particulars is 
the general tone of the intercourse between husband 
and wife. It is thoroughly natural : full of warmth, 
dignity, reciprocal deference, and substantial, if not 
conventional, delicacy. The fulness of moral and in- 
telligent being is alike complete, and alike acknowl- 
edged, on the one side and on the other. Nor is this 
description confined to the scenes properly Hellenic. It 
embraces the conversation of Hector with Andromache, 
and is nowhere more applicable than to the whole char- 
acter and demeanor of Nausicaa — delineations prob- 
ably due rather to the Hellenic experience of the Poet, 
than to any minute observation either of Phoenician or 
of Trojan manners. Of rude manners to a woman 
there is not a real instance in the Poems. And to this 
circumstance we may add its true correlative, that the 
women of Homer are truly and profoundly feminine. 
As to the intensity of conjugal love, it has never 
passed the climax which it reaches in Odysseus and 
Penelope. 

Presents were usually brought by the bridegroom ; 
dowries sometimes given with the bride. With a wife 
returning in widowhood to the parental home, the dowry 
returned also. 1 On the other hand it would appear, 
from the Lay of the Net, that a fine was imposed upon 
the detected adulterer, 2 as well as on the manslayer. 
In some instances, personal and mental gifts serve in 
lieu of possessions, as recommendations in suing for 
a wife. 



i Od. ii. 132. 



2 Od. viii. 348. 



ETHICS OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



415 



Lastly, with respect to the employments of women. 

It appears to be at least open to question whether 
they were not capable of political sovereignty. 1 The 
suggestion of the text seems to be that Chloris was 
queen in Pulos when Neleus married her ; and the 
mention of Hupsipule with Jason is best accounted 
for by supposing, conformably to tradition, that she 
reigned in Lemnos. 2 On the departure of Agamemnon 
Clutaimnestra was left in charge, with the Bard as an 
adviser ; 3 and in Ithaca Penelope^ had a similar regency, 
apparently with the aid of Mentor. 4 

Priesthood appears not to have existed among the 
Hellenes of the Homeric age ; but in Troas, where we 
find it, a woman was priestess of Athene\ This was 
Theano, the wife of Antenor ; and she is said to have 
been appointed to her office by the Trojans. The 
seizure of Marpessa, or Alcuon£, by Apollo, may have 
had reference to some religious ministry at Delphi. 

The domestic employments of women are pretty 
clearly indicated in the descriptions of the Palaces of 
Kirke and of Odysseus. The outdoor offices were 
performed in Ithaca by men, who likewise prepared the 
firewood, killed, cut up, and carved the animals, and 
carried to the farm the manure that accumulated about 
the house. The Suitors also had male personal at- 
tendants. The women performed the indoor operations 
generally, including the fetching of water and the 
grinding of flour. 

Another employment discharged by women has given 
rise to misunderstanding ; namely, their waiting on 



1 II. vii. 468, 469. Od. xi. 281-285. 

2 II. vii. 469. 3 Od. iii. 263-268. 
4 Od. ii. 225-227 ; xix. 322; xx. 129-133. IL. vi. 297-300. 



416 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



men for purposes connected with the bath. Damsels 
of the highest rank performed this duty for strangers. 
But the delicacy of the early Greeks, with regard to 
any undue exposure of the person, 1 was extreme ; and, 
though they may have differed from our merely con- 
ventional usages, it cannot be imagined that they 
departed from propriety in a point where a people far 
less scrupulous would have respected it. The error has 
lain principally in failure to observe that in the words 
used for washing, bathing, and anointing, the actual 
operation is described by the middle voice, 2 and the 
words loud, chri5, nip to, in the active, in general 
signify supplying another person with the means Sf 
performing these offices for himself. 3 The same rule 
I believe to hold good with respect to the word which 
describes dressing after the bath (ball 6). 

1 II. ii. 260-264. 

2 So Wakefield. See II. x. 572-577 ; Od. vi. 96, 219, 220, et alibi. 

3 Od. vi. 210, 218, 222 ; vii. 296. Even Od. x. 361 need not be an 
exception. 



CHAPTER XI. 



Polity of the Heroic Age. 

The Poems of Homer are the seed-plot of what is 
best and soundest in the Greek politics of the historic 
period. Nor are we, the moderns, and, as I think, the 
British in particular, without a special relation to the 
subject. In part we owe to these ancient societies a 
debt. In part we may trace with reasonable pleasure 
an original similitude between the Homeric picture 
and the best ideas of our European and our British 
ancestry. What are those ideas? Among the soundest 
of them we reckon the power of opinion and persuasion 
as opposed to force ; the sense of responsibility in 
governing men ; the hatred, not only of tyranny, but 
of all unlimited power ; the love and the habit of public 
in preference to secret action ; the reconciliation and 
harmony between the spirit of freedom on the one 
hand, the spirit of order and reverence on the other ; 
and a practical belief in right as relative, and in duty 
as reciprocal. Out of these elements, whether in an- 
cient or in modern times, great governments have been 
made. The Homeric Poems exhibit them all, if not 
in methodical development, yet in vigorous life. 

27 



418 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Even war required a basis of right, perhaps rudely 
defined ; and retribution a corpus delicti. Hence the 
readiness with which the offer of Paris 1 to decide the 
war by single combat is accepted ; and hence it may 
be that when Agamemnon anticipates the death of 
Menelaos from his wound, he judges also that, on that 
event, the army will return home. 

Personal reverence for sovereigns is undoubtedly 
a powerful principle in the governments of the heroic 
age. There is for them a kind of divinity that doth 
6 hedge a king.' Odysseus, wishing to arrest the sudden 
impulse of the army to return, furnishes himself with 
the famed Sceptre of Agamemnon, as a token of his 
title to be heard. This principle, which has survived 
almost every modification of political forms, could not 
but be lively at a period when probably no great num- 
ber of generations had passed since the exchange of 
nomad for settled life. For society, in the nomad 
stage, has something of the organization of the army ; 
and it is still either in view or in actual experience of 
the time when the family, forming itself around its 
head, had not yet grown into the tribe ; much less the 
tribe into the people. 

But, while this reverence existed under all social 
forms, the characteristic difference of the Homeric 
states is to be found in the qualifications by which 
on every side it was hindered from passing into excess. 
The monarch was controlled by the princes or chiefs 
assembled in the council ({iovlrj) ; an institution which 
the Odyssey- mentions in ScheriS, and the Iliad (in- 
formally) in Troy ; so that we must presume it to have 



i II. iii. 96-112. 



POLITY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



419 



been in the view of the Greeks not a merely local 
institution, but a prime element of human society. 
The mass, however, of the free citizens were also 
called together in the Agor£, or Assembly, to consider 
any matter of cardinal importance ; and appeal was 
made to their reason in speeches which, for aptitude 
and force, to this day extort the admiration, and 
perhaps defy the rivalry, of the moderns. 

It is upon a just balance of forces that good govern- 
ment now mainly depends. In the Homeric age, there 
were no detailed or even defined provisions to secure 
this balance. Even the name of law (n-omos) is un- 
known, though the name of public right (the mis) is 
familiar and revered. Into the Greek Constitutions, 
described by Aristotle, a multitude of expedients for 
that purpose had been introduced by human ingenuity. 
Yet those constitutions were subject to frequent and 
most violent changes, usually attended by the absolute 
ejectment of the defeated party from house and field. 
And even when not under disturbance they commonly 
exhibited a strong bias towards excess in one quarter 
or another. To the Troic period, too, revolutions were 
not unknown. But the idea of government, which 
then prevailed, was perhaps both more strongly forti- 
fied by religious reverence, and likewise better founded 
in reciprocal duty, than that of later times. The sepa- 
ration and conflict of interests between the different 
parts of the community had not become a familiar 
idea ; particular classes did not plot against the whole ; 
we hear little of the tyranny of kings, or the insubordi- 
nation of subjects. A worse era was about to follow. 
As in the case of the Crusades, so during the War of 
Troy, the absence of the rulers prepared the way for 



420 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



social convulsion. And Hesiod, living at a time later 
probably by some generations, looks back from his iron 
age with an admiring envy on the heroic period. 

6 The early monarchies/ says Thucydides, ' enjoyed 
specified 1 prerogatives ; ' and Aristotle assures us that 
they were monarchies 2 upon terms, and depended on 
a voluntary allegiance. The threefold function of the 
King among the Hellenes was (a) chiefly perhaps, 
though not exclusively, to administer justice 3 between 
man and man ; (6) to command the army, and (<?) to 
conduct the rites of religion. Sometimes the sover- 
eignty was local, or subaltern ; sometimes, as perhaps in 
the case of Minos 4 and of Priam, and even of Peleus, 
but clearly and broadly in that of Agamemnon, 5 it was 
a suzerainty over other Kings and princes, as well as a 
direct dominion over territory specially appropriated, 
and perhaps also over an unclaimed residue of minor 
settlements and communities. Besides the towns, 
which supplied Agamemnon with his division of the 
army, he claimed to dispose of the sovereignty of other 
towns, which lay in the south-west of the Pelopon- 
nesos. 6 

The Homeric Kings, however, constitute in the Iliad 
a class by themselves. The greater part of the chiefs 
do not bear the title of Basileus, but had probably 
that of an ax, prince, or lord. Some of these were like 
Phoinix under Peleus ; but most of them in no other 
subordination than to Agamemnon. The only duty to 
the suzerain of which we hear is that of military 

i i. 13. 2 Arist. Pol. iii. 14, 15, ver. 10. 3 II. ii. 201-206. 

4 Thucydides, i. 4, says that Minos appointed his sons to be local or 
deputed Governors. 

5 II. ii. 108, 483 ; xxiii. 890. 6 II. ix. 149-153. 



POLITY OP THE HEROIC AGE. 



421 



service. His superior rank 1 is acknowledged ; so that 
both he, and apparently Menelaos, on account of his 
relationship, are termed 4 more kingly ' 2 than the other 
Kings. These gradations in the order may perhaps be 
compared to those of a modern Peerage or Noblesse. 

The King, as such, stands in a special relation to 
deity. The epithet theios, divine, is only applied to 
such among the living as have this relation. The King 
is also Diotrephes, or reared by Zeus, and Diogenes, or 
born of Zeus ; and these titles are given rarely below 
the kingly order even to a prince or ruler, if of inferior 
degree or eminence. It is expressly declared that 
Kings derive the right to rule 3 from Zeus, from whom 
descended, by successive deliveries, the sceptre of 
Agamemnon. In the Greek army the Kings alone 
seem to constitute the council of the Generalissimo. 
Scarcely on any occasion does a ruler of the second 
order appear there. The kings are called Basilees, 
or Gerontes (elders), or perhaps Koiranoi; but 
the leaders at large are Archoi, or Hegemones, or 
(a^m^o) the aristocracy. 

In the Catalogue, the command of some of the di- 
visions is held as it were in commission ; or, in other 
words, rests with two or more persons jointly and 
severally, on a footing of parity between themselves. 
But wherever there is a King, he either appears alone, 
in his capacity of General, as Agamemnon, Menelaos, 
Odysseus, Nestor, Achilles, the greater and the lesser 
Ajax ; or with other leaders who are distinctly under 
him, as Diomed 4 and Idomeneus. 5 These nine persons 



1 II. i. 186. 2 ii. i x . leo ; x . 239. 

3 II. ii. 101, 205. 4 ii. ii. 563-566. 

5 The Catalogue, II. ii. 645-652, might leave doubtful the position 



422 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



are the only undeniable Kings of the Iliad, as may ap- 
pear from comparing together II. ii. 404-409, II. xix. 
309-311, and from the transactions of II. x. 34-197. 
Particular phrases or passages might raise the question 
whether four others, Meges, Eurupulos, Patroclos, and 
Phoinix, were not viewed by Homer as being also 
Kings. Probably his idea of the class was not so 
definite as ours ; but on the whole the line, which 
excludes these and all the other chiefs from the kingly 
rank, is drawn with considerable clearness. The King, 
as viewed in the Iliad, must be a person combining 
three conditions : first, he is subordinate to none but 
Agamemnon ; secondly, he has in all cases marked 
personal vigor and prowess ; thirdly, if his dominions 
are small, he must either be of surpassing strength of 
body at least, like the Telamonian Ajax, or of vast 
powers of mind as well as limb, like Odysseus. 

Among the bodily qualities of the Kings, one is 
personal beauty. This attaches peculiarly to the Trojan 
royal family, and it is recorded even of the aged Priam 
in his grief. 1 At the head of all stands Achilles. 
Odysseus has this endowment, though in a less marked 
degree. Ajax, in the Odyssey, appears to compete with 
Nireus, in the Iliad, for the second place. It is never 
predicated individually, I think, of any single man 
below the princely station, although when the crew of 
Odysseus were re-transformed at Aiaie" into human 
shape, they are collectively said to have been by far 
larger and more beautiful than before. 2 

of Meriones ; but it is fixed by the terras depairov and oiraov, applied 
to him in II. x. 58, xxiii. 113, el alibi ; which, though perhaps more 
than Squire, means less than Colleague. 

i II. xxiv. 631. 2 Od. x. 396. 



POLITY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



423 



Personal vigor is also a condition, not only of as- 
suming, but almost of continuing in, the exercise of 
sovereignty. 1 Laertes quitted his throne at a time 
anterior to the departure of Odysseus for the war, long 
before the period of decrepitude, 2 and probably when 
his activity had but begun to diminish. Achilles, in 
the Shades, 3 inquires whether Peleus still occupies the 
throne, or has retired from it on account of his years. 
Nestor, indeed, yet occupies the royal seat ; but perhaps 
it is on account of his notable talents, combined with^ 
the greenness of his old age. The word aiz eos, which 
signifies a man in his full strength, when joined with 
Diotrephes, or royal, is applied to princes as a class, 
and thus testifies to the custom I have described. 4 
Telemachos was the proper heir to his father's throne ; 5 
but he was only coming to, though close upon, full age, 
and he had not yet assumed its privileges at the point 
where the action of the Poem begins. 

Over and above the work of battle, the Prince is 
peerless in the Games. Of the eight contests of the 
Twenty-third Iliad, seven are conducted entirely by the 
Kings and chiefs. The exception is the boxing-match. 
And Epeios, the winner in this match, himself declares 6 
that he does not possess the gifts necessary for dis- 
tinction in battle ; an indication by the way, among 
many, of the immense value set by Homer upon skill 
as compared with mere strength. 7 Tne prizes, too, 
which are given in the boxing-match appear, when 
compared with the other rewards, to show the reputed 
inferiority of this accomplishment. 

i Grote, Hist. Greece, vol. ii. p. 87. 2 Od. xi. 174, 184. 

3 Od. xi. 495. * II. ii. 660. Comp. II. xvi. 716. 

5 Od. i. 386. 6 II. xxiii. 670. 1 Comp. II. xxiii. 315-318. 



424 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



So likewise with the gifts of music and song. Usu- 
ally, of course, we look for them to the Bards. Upon 
the Shield, in the procession of youths and maidens 
who bear the grapes from the vineyard, a boy attends 
them to play and sing, probably because it did not 
comport with the dignity of the Bard to exercise his 
art while in bodily motion ; for presently we come to 
another scene, where he plays, without moving, to the 
dancers. 1 There are but two certain indications of (so 
to speak) amateur song and playing. The lyre which 
Achilles used was among the spoils of the city of 
Eetion, and may possibly have belonged to that King 
himself. 2 On this lyre Achilles himself played during 
his retirement. And our other musician is Paris. 3 

But the kingly character in Homer is also all-com- 
prehensive ; and it sometimes embraces even the 
manual employments of honorable industry. Odys- 
seus, in the Island of Calypso, 4 is a wood-cutter and 
ship-builder : Odysseus on his throne was the carpenter 
and artisan of his own bed, 5 so elaborately wrought : 
Odysseus, in disguise, challenges Eurumachos the 
Suitor to try which of them would soonest mow a 
meadow, 6 and which drive the straightest furrow down 
a four-acre field. 

Such were the corporal accomplishments of the 
Homeric King. He was also, in the exercise of higher 
faculties, Judge, General, and Priest. In addition to 
all these, and as binding them all together, he was em- 
phatically a gentleman. In Agamemnon, indeed, there 
is a half-sordid vein, which mars the higher type ; 



1 II. xviii. 569, 604. 

3 II. iii. 54. 

5 Od. xxiii. 195-201. 



2 II. ix. 186-188. 
4 Od. v. 243, 261. 
6 Od. xviii. 366-375. 



POLITY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



425 



though he corresponds in general to the eulogy of 
Helen, 1 as a good King and a valiant soldier. Nestor, 
Diomed, Menelaos, are markedly gentlemen in their 
demeanor. The character of Odysseus, caricatured 
and debased by the later tradition, abounds in Homer 
with similar notes. Quick in the sense of undeserved 
reproof from his chief, he appeals only to the con- 
futation which his conduct in the field will supply. 2 
When grossly insulted by Eurualos, his stern and 
masterful rebuke is so justly measured as to excite 
the sympathy of strangers. 3 But the best exhibition 
of the profound refinement inhering in the character 
of Odysseus is, perhaps, afforded by the scene in which 
he first appears before Nausicaa, 4 after his escape from 
the devouring waters. 

It is, however, in Achilles that courtesy reaches to 
its acme. In the First Iliad, he hails with a genial 
kindness the heralds who came on the odious errand 
of enforcing the removal of Briseis, and he at once 
reassures them by acquitting them of blame ; 5 though 
as we know 

' The messenger of evil tidings 
Hath but a losing office.' 

In the Ninth Book, while still in the Wrath, we find 
him bidding the envoys of Agamemnon a hearty wel- 
come. 6 In both cases he anticipates the new comers 
with a speech, of which the promptitude is itself a 
delicate stroke of the best manners. The most refined, 
however, of his attentions is perhaps that shown to 
Agamemnon, after the reconciliation, on the occasion 

i II. hi. 179. 2 II. iv. 349-355. 3 Od. viii. 165, 396. 

4 Od. vi. 115 seqq. 5 n. i. 334. 6 n. ix. 137. 



426 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



of the Games. It was difficult to exclude the chief 
King from the sport of Kings ; inadmissible to let him 
be worsted ; impossible either to make him conquer 
those who were his superiors in strength, or to place 
him in competition with secondary persons. Achilles 
avoids all these difficulties by proposing a ninth, or 
supernumerary match, with the sling ; and then at 
once presenting the prize to Agamemnon with the ob- 
servation that, as his excellence is known to be para- 
mount, there need be no actual trial. 1 

Yet these great chiefs, so strong in every form of 
power, bravery, and skill, can upon occasion weep like 
a woman or a child. A list of the passages, in which 
the tears of heroes flow, would probably by its length 
cause astonishment even to those who are aware that 
a susceptible temperament prompted them, and that a 
false shame did not forbid them, thus to give vent to 
their emotions. 2 Every one of them, unless it be the 
aged Nestor, would be included : we should find there 
even Agamemnon, whom we may probably consider as 
the prince least richly furnished in this department of 
our nature. 

Thus far we have spoken mainly of the persons. 
The office, which these persons bore, was hereditary, 
in the line of the eldest son. Yet though the practice 
prevailed, the definition was, in this and in other cases, 
not so sharp as ours. Menelaos, the brother of Aga- 
memnon, partakes in a certain limited degree of his 
dignity : is specially solicited, with him, by the priest 
Chruses; 3 receives, jointly with him, the presents 
offered by Euneos 4 for leave to trade with the army ; 

1 II. xxiii. 884-897. 2 Comp. Juv. Sat. xr. 131-133. 

3 II. i. 16. 4 U. vii. 470. 



POLITY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



427 



and is held more royal than the other chieftains. 1 
Probably when Thuestes succeeded Atreus, it was on 
account of the childhood of Agamemnon, which pre- 
vented his fulfilling the conditions of strength and 
vigor necessary for holding the monarchy. 

The case of Telemachos supplies us with an express 
declaration of the title of the son to succeed his father. 2 
But Antinoos the Suitor, at a time when Odysseus was 
supposed to be dead, states his hope that Zeus will 
never make the youth king of Ithaca. The answer is 
far from claiming that unconditional right to the 
throne of the islands, which it asserts to the estates 
of Odysseus; 3 and leaves room for the supposition, 
that the succession was liable to be more or less affected 
by personal qualifications, and by the assent or dissent 
of the nobles, or even of the community. Even at this 
time, however, Telemachos assumed in the Assembly 
the seat of his father. 

Telemachos, indeed, is an only son. But, in the 
case of the Pelopids, Agamemnon appears to succeed 
to the paternal throne, and Menelaos to governSparta 
in right of his wife. Of the two brothers, Protesilaos 
and Podarkes, in the Catalogue, the former, who is the 
elder, commands the force from Phulake and its sister 
towns. 4 He was, however, we are expressly told, braver, 
as well as older. The position of Antilochos in the Iliad 
as the elder son of Nestor, and of Thrasumedes, after 
his death, in the Odyssey, appear to be sufficiently 
marked. 5 In four cases of the Catalogue, pairs of 
brothers are named as in command, without any dis- 
tinction formally drawn between them. 



i II. x. 32 and 239. 
4 II. ii. 695-708. 



2 Od. i. 387. 3 od, i. 396. 

5 Od. iii. 412, 439-446. 



428 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



The Olympian arrangements bear, perhaps, the most 
emphatic testimony to the higher dignity and authority 
of the elder brother. For it is only in that capacity, 
that the superiority of Zeus is confessed by his juniors. 1 
They are not, however, excluded from inheritance ; and 
the respective provinces are taken by lot. 

On the whole, we seem to have the custom or law of 
primogeniture sufficiently, but not over-sharply, defined. 

The Homeric King, decked out with attributes almost 
ideal, appears before us, so far as Greece is concerned, 
in not a threefold only, but a fourfold, character; besides 
being Priest, Judge, and General, he is also, as King, a 
great Proprietor. 

Priesthood is a function touching the daily course of 
life. Besides the solemn and public sacrifices, the meat 
of each meal is an offering ; the word ' to sacrifice,' 
hiereuein is used as meaning ' to kill ;' the animal 
ready to be killed is hi or ei on, a sacrifice. Yet there 
appears to be no professional priest among the Hellenes. 
We hear of many priests in the Poems : but of none of 
them can we positively assert that they were Greek. 
The priest is referred to, together with the prophet and 
dream-teller, in the first Assembly of the Iliad : but the 
Greeks are there 2 in a land of priests ; and as Achilles 
plainly points to the prophet Calchas, who immediately 
afterwards rises to speak, so it is probable that he may 
point to the priest Chruses, who had already visited the 
camp. Among the chief professions of a Greek com- 
munity, enumerated in the Odyssey, 3 the priest does not 
appear. Though priests are wanting, prophets are not; 



1 II. xv. 204-207. Od. xiii. 142. 

2 II. i. 62. 3 Od. xvii. 383-385. 



POLITY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 429 

and in this important passage, the class of prophets is 
the first named. One passage only speaks of priests 
within the local limits of Greece : ] it refers to a gene- 
ration before the War ; and it is quite possible that, both 
then and subsequently, there may have been priests in 
Greece of Pelasgian institution. Wherever there was a 
temenos, or glebe, probably there was a priest to live 
upon the proceeds. But the only sacred glebes of which 
we hear in Greece are (I think) the glebes of Spercheios 
and of Demeter, 2 both of them old Pelasgian deities. 

In conformity with this view, we find that among 
the Hellenes, in the public and solemn sacrifices, the 
priestly office is performed by the King. Moreover, 
the assistants are termed neoi, 3 young men. This 
supports a conjecture suggested to me by the resem- 
blance of the words, that hierosand geron have been 
originally identical in root. In Greece down to the 
present day the monk is called c a 1 o-g e r o (the French 
caloyer). It was to the Father, as such, that in the 
origin of society the offices both of King and Priest 
generally accrued. To the Father, in the time of 
Homer, the ordinary consecration or offering of the 
meal appertains, as he presides at the domestic board. 

The office of the Judge seems to be, more than any 
other, proper to the King. It probably constituted his 
only official employment which was at once permanent 
(that of war being occasional), and of a nature 4 to 
weigh upon the mind. But it should be understood 
as including all deliberative work. On the Shield, 5 
the trial of a cause is conducted by the Elders ; perhaps 

i II. ix. 575. 2 ii. xxiii. 148 ; ii. 696. 

3 II. i. 463. Od. iii. 460. 

4 II. i. 238 ; ii. 204 ; ix. 98 ; xvi. 386. * n, xv iii. 506 



430 JUVENTUS MUNDI. 

in the character of delegates. Causes must have been 
conducted by natural equity, or by what in Ireland was 
called Brehon, that is judge-made, law. Probably 
custom had already established some rules with respect 
to fines for homicide and adultery, if not for other 
offences. 

The duty of the King as General is best exhibited 
by the whole plan of the Iliad. Here the King, if in 
full vigor, assumes the captain's office as a matter of 
course, and quits his house and throne to discharge it. 
Peleus, 1 the father of Achilles, remains at home, because 
he is disabled by old age. Nestor, retaining more of his 
bodily vigor, goes to war, but acts in the camp chiefly as 
a counsellor, and at no time actually handles arms. 

Never has the idea of regal duty and responsibility, 
both in general, and with respect to war in particular, 
been more nobly set forth than in the speech of Sarpe- 
don to Glaucos, 2 in the Twelfth Iliad ; before the high- 
souled speaker proceeded to execute what was, on the 
Trojan side, by far the greatest exploit of the War. 

Lastly. In consideration of the duties and burdens 
of his office, the King was a great Proprietor. A 
domain 3 (temenos) was set apart for him out of 
the common stock of territory (from temnein, to 
cut, to carve out). The class had apparently two other 
sources of revenue. They received presents from 
merchants, for leave to trade ; of which we find an 
example also in the Book of Genesis. 4 The practice 
of offering such gifts is probably to be regarded as the 

i II. xxiv. 487. Od. xi. 497. 2 H. xii. 310-328. 

3 II. xii. 313 ; vi. 194 ; ix. 578 ; xx. 184. Od. vi. 293 ; xi. 185 ; 

xvii. 299. 

4 xliii. 11. II. vii. 467-475. Od. vii. 8-11. 



POLITY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



431 



germ of Customs-duties, or taxes on the import and 
export of goods. The other was from fees on the 
administration of justice. 1 Of these, we have the 
earliest rudiment represented on the Shield ; where 
lay two talents of gold, to be awarded to the judge 
whose sentence in the cause should be most approved. 2 
In time of war, too, Agamemnon was charged with 
appropriating a very large share of the prizes to 
himself. 3 

But the King was expected to be liberal in his 
official entertainments, so to call them, to his chiefs 
and nobles, over and above the general duty of hospi- 
tality. 4 This, probably, was the excuse of the Suitors 
for devouring the substance of Odysseus. It appears, 
at any rate, that friends of the royal house frequented 
the table at the palace, as well as its enemies, though 
perhaps not so constantly. 5 

The King might also obtain private property. 
Laertes lived, in his old age, on an estate thus ac- 
quired. 6 And, in the First Odyssey, we find a dis- 
tinction between the house of Odysseus with the lands 
about it, to which Telemachos was to succeed as of 
right, and the kingly dignity with whatever might 
attach to it. 7 

Such was the position of the King. Agamemnon, how- 
ever, was a King of Kings : more or less resembling 
what we now call a Suzerain, or the highest feudal 
superior of the middle age. Thucydides is of opinion 
that the fear of him 8 had more to do than good will, or 
than the oath of Tundareus, in the formation of the 

i II. ix. 155. 2 ii. X viii. 508. 3 II. i x . 333. 

4 II. ix. 70. Od. vii. 49, 98. 5 Od. xvii. 68. 

6 Od. xxiv. 206. 1 Od. i. 397, 402. 8 i. 9. 



432 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



confederacy which undertook the war of Troy. Na- 
tional sentiment, and the hope of booty, might also 
contribute powerfully to this extraordinary effort. 
We have, however, no means of tracing in the Poems 
any interference of the Suzerain, beyond his own proper 
dominions, in the ordinary government of the country ; 
or any duty owed to him, except in war. 

The general reverence for rank and station, the safe- 
guard of publicity, and the influence of persuasion, are 
the usual and sufficient instruments for governing the 
army, even as they governed the civil societies, of 
Greece. The few words quoted by Aristotle 1 from 
some text of the Iliad which was current in his day 
and place, signifying that Agamemnon had a right of 
life and death, cannot reasonably, without a context, be 
made to convey a theory of military discipline out of 
harmony with the tone and analogies of the poem, and 
belonging to the definite ideas of the present rather than 
to the free life of the older time. Moreover, as these 
words (jtaQ yag epol ddvatog) afterwards disappeared from 
the text of the Poem, the most natural inference seems 
to be that they were not finally approved as genuine. 

It is in the Assemblies, that the great transactions 
of the army are decided. There, arises the quarrel 
with Achilles : there, the tumultuary impulse home- 
wards ; there, that impulse having been checked, it is 
deliberately resolved to see what can be done by the 
strong hand against Troy. There it is settled to ask a 
truce for burials, and to erect the rampart. There the 
second proposition of Agamemnon to return to Greece 
is made, and is summarily overruled. 2 There the 



1 Aristot. Pol. iii. 14, 15. 



2 II. ix. 26-28, 50. 



POLITY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



433 



Council is appointed to sit, which despatches the 
abortive mission to Achilles. There Agamemnon con- 
fesses and laments his fault, and the reconciliation with 
the great chief is sealed. There, finally, arises the 
dissension of the two sons of Atreus, after the fall of 
Troy. 1 

The ranks traceable in the army are : 

1. The Kings: Basileis or Koiranoi. 

2. The Leaders under the rank of King. 

3. The officers of minor command. 

Both these last come under the name ofhegemones.- 
The ships had each her kubernetes or pilot, who 
probably commanded as well as steered : and there 
were a number of t ami a i, or stewards, whom we may 
regard as the commissariat of that day. 2 

The privates of the army are called by the names 
of 1 a o s, the people ; demos, the community ; and 
pie thus, the multitude. But no notice is taken, 
throughout the Poem, of the exploits of any soldier 
below the rank of a high officer. Still, all attend the 
Assemblies. On the whole, the Greek host is not so 
much an army, as a community in arms. 

On the nature of the arms employed by the bulk of 
the force, it is not easy to pronounce with confidence. 
There were heavy-armed, who fought with spear, 
sword, axe, and stone ; javelin-men, who used a lighter 
dart; archers; and hippeis, those who fought from 
the chariot. Though the art of riding, in our sense 
of it, was known, it was not used in battle. One 
passage appears to speak of the Trojans as attacking 
with javelins and arrows, and of the Greeks as resist- 



i Od. iii. 139. 



28 



2 II. xix. 42-45. 



434 



< JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



ing with the weapons proper to the heavy-armed ; 1 
another distinctly describes the first in the same man- 
ner : 2 and on the whole I judge that the Greek soldiery ; 
with its solid march, were combatants, in the main, 
using weapons of weight ; the Trojans somewhat less 
so. Only the Trojans distinguish themselves as archers 
in the persons of Pandaros and Paris : but there were 
bowmen in the Greek army also. 3 

Two modes of fighting were in use : the open battle 
of main force, without strategy or tactics, and liable to 
panic. The other was the lochos, or ambuscade. As 
a severer trial of nerve and moral fortitude, this latter 
was held in higher estimation, and was reserved to the 
chiefs. 4 We must not say that Achilles would have 
been inferior to any man in any act of martial skill 
or daring : but in the Poems, as they stand, Odysseus 
has been chosen as the prince of ambush. 5 

The Council was composed of chief persons, who 
bore the name of gero ntes, 6 or elders : a name which 
was probably in its origin personal, and had by degrees 
become, like that of Senator in later times, official. 
In the Council of the Army, Nestor is old, Idomeneus 
near upon old age : Odysseus might be called elderly, 
though still in the perfection of strength. 7 

In the Second Book, the Boule or Council is sum- 
moned by Agamemnon, to prepare for the Assembly. 8 
The same persons meet before the solemn sacrifice, 9 
without being called a Council. They meet again, as a 

1 II. xv. 707-712. 2 Od. xviii. 261-264. 

3 H. ii. 720 ; iii. 79. 

4 II. xviii. 509-520 ; xiii. 276-286 ; i. 227. 

5 Od. iv. 277-288. 6 II. ii. 53. 7 II. xxiii. 791. 
8 II. ii. 53. 9 II. ii. 404-408. 



POLITY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



435 



Council, by appointment of the Assembly, in the Ninth 
Book ; 1 and send the Envoys to supplicate Achilles. 
In the Seventh Book, this body plans the truce and the 
rampart. 2 It is spoken of as an institution evidently 
familiar. 3 The disorganized society of Ithaca does not 
afford scope for a regular Council ; but a place is set 
apart for the elders in the Agore, 4 and Odysseus in his 
youth had been sent on a mission by Laertes and his 
Council. 5 In Scherie, Nansicaa meets her father 6 on 
his way to the Boule\ The members of the Army- 
council contend freely in argument with Agamemnon ; 
and Nestor takes the lead in that body, and observes 
to Agamemnon that it is his duty to listen as well as to 
speak, and to adopt the plans of others when they are 
good. 7 This institution was one utterly at variance 
with anything like absolutism in the command. 

In the Homeric ideas upon Polity, perhaps the most 
remarkable of all is the distinction accorded to the 
power of speech. The voice and the sword are the 
twin powers, by which the Greek world is governed ; 
and there is no precedency of rank between them. 
The power of public speech is essentially a power over 
large numbers ; and, wherever it prevails, it is the 
surest test of the presence of the spirit and practice 
of freedom. The world has repeatedly seen absolutism 
deck itself with the titles and mere forms of liberty, 
or seek shelter under its naked abstractions ; but from 
the use of free speech as the instrument of governing 
the people, it has always shrunk with an instinctive 
horror. The epithets and incidental passages with 

1 II. ix. 10, 89. 2 n. vii. 344, 382. 3 Od. iii. 127. 

4 Od. ii. 14. 5 Od. xxi. 21. 6 od. vi. 53-55. 

7 II. ix. 100-102. 



436 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. , 



which Homer honors it, show much of his mind. 1 
But the most emphatic testimony to its importance, 
and to the state of things which it betokens, is the 
free, signal, and varied excellence of the Homeric 
Speeches. 

In the case of speakers, Homer is less chary of de- 
scription than his wont : and he has exhibited to us 
in action too a great variety of manners. There is 
Thersites, glib, vain, and saucy. 2 There is Tele- 
machos, full of the gracious diffidence of youth, but 
commended by Nestor for a power and a tact of ex- 
pression beyond his years. 3 Menelaos harangues with 
a laconic ease. 4 We have the Trojan elders, whose 
volubility, and their shrill thread of voice, Homer com- 
pares to the chirp of grasshoppers. 5 Nestor's tones 
of happy and benevolent egotism flow sweeter than a 
stream of honey. 6 Phoinix would, in unskilful hands, 
have been a pale reflex of Nestor's garrulity without 
his sagacity ; but his speaking is redeemed by his pro- 
found and absorbing affection for Achilles, which gives 
him as it were a different centre of gravity. Far above 
all these soars Odysseus, who when he first rises, with 
all his energies concentrated within him, seems to give 
no promise of display ; but when his deep voice issues 
from his chest, and his words drive like the flakes of 
winter snow, then, says the Poet, for mortal to compete 
with him is hopeless. 7 

But yet there is another speaker who, when lie rises 
to his noblest, seems as though he were scarcely mortal. 
Homer leaves the eloquence of Achilles to stand self- 

1 II. i. 490 ; ix. 438-443. Od. xi. 510-516 ; ii. 150 ; viii. 170-173. 

2 II. ii. 212. 3 od. iii. 23, 124. 4 II. iii. 213. 

5 II. iii. 150. 6 II. i. 249. ? ii. Hi. 216-223. 



POLITY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



43T 



described. That chief modestly pronounces himself 
to be below Odysseus in the use of oratory. ' It seems 
to me that his spee'ches may challenge comparison 
with all that we find in Homer ; and with all that the 
ebb and flow of three thousand years have added to 
our records of true human eloquence. Even here, 
Homer's resources are not exhausted. The decision 
of Diomed, the irresolution of Agamemnon, the blunt- 
ness of Ajax, are all admirably marked in the series 
of speeches allotted to each respectively. Scarcely 
anywhere is mediocrity to be found ; and perhaps the 
greatest example on record of a perfectly simple noble- 
ness is to be found in the speech of Sarpedon to 
Glaucos on the duties of kings. 1 

With respect to the power of speech, and the ca- 
pacity of being moved by it, the performances of the 
Poet are truly the best picture of the age itself. Un- 
like great poems, great speeches cannot be made, 
except in an age and place where they are understood 
and felt. The work of the orator is cast in the mould 
offered him by the mind of his hearers. He cannot 
follow nor frame ideals at his own will ; his choice is 
to be what his time will have him, what it requires in 
order to be moved by him, or not to be at all. 

If the power of oratory proper is remarkable in 
Homer, so likewise, and perhaps yet more, is the fac- 
ulty of what in England is called 6 debate.' In Homer's 
discussions, every speech after the first is commonly a 
reply. It belongs not only to the subject, but to the 
speech that went before ; it exhibits, given the question 
and the aims of the speaker, the exact degree of as- 



i II. xii. 310-328. 



438 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



cent and descent, of expansion or contraction, which 
the circumstances of the case, in the state up to which 
they were brought by the preceding address, may 
require. The debate in the Assembly of the First 
Book, and that in the Encampment of Achilles, 1 
are, as oratorical structures, complete and consum- 
mate. 

A people cannot act in its corporate capacity without 
intermission ; and the King is the standing representa- 
tive of the community. But though he be the pivot of 
its functional and administrative activity, the Agore, 
or Assembly, is the centre of its life and vital motion. 
The greatest ultimate power possessed by the King is 
that of exercising an influence upon his subjects, there 
gathered into one focus, through the combined medium 
of their reverence for his person, and of his powers of 
persuasion. There is no decision by numbers ; the 
doctrine of majorities is an invention, an expedient, of 
a more advanced social development. In Olympos, a 
minority of influential gods carry the day against the 
majority, and against their head, in the great matter 
of the Trojan war. 

The interference of Thersites in the Debate of the 
Second Iliad, and his attempt to bring the Assembly 
back to the impulse of returning home, were followed 
by sharp corporal chastisement, and by the menace of 
the last degree of personal disgrace. But the very 
attempt to interfere by suggesting such audacious pro- 
posals, and these from a person so contemptible, may 
perhaps be taken as an indication that freedom of 
debate generally prevailed. 



II. ix. 225-655. 



POLITY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



439 



In one of the scenes represented on the Shield of 
Achilles, new evidence is afforded us, that the people 
took a real part in the conduct of affairs. An As- 
sembly is sitting. A criminal suit is in progress. The 
parties plead on either side, and challenge a decision ; 
and the people, taking part some one way and some 
the other, encourage them by cheering. The heralds 
keep order, and stay the interruptions when the time 
arrives for the judges to speak. 1 This applause of 
itself asserts the recognized interest and participation 
of the people ; for it contributes both to the decision, 
and to the spirit and efficacy of the means of per- 
suasion, by which that decision is to be influenced. 
Not only so ; but it seems to have been by popular 
vote that the two talents were to be awarded, which 
lay on the floor, and were to be given to the Elder who 
might pronounce the soundest judgment. 2 Finally, 
in the Assembly of the Seventh Iliad, Idaios arrives 
from Troy with an offer to restore the stolen property, 
but not Helen herself. Diomed repudiates it, and his 
opinion is echoed back in the cheers of the army. 
Agamemnon then addresses himself to the herald, 
' Idaios, you hear the sense of the Achaians, how they 
answer you ; and I think with them.' Thus the ac- 
clamation was also the vote. 3 

That which we do not find in Homer is the submis- 
sion of the minority to the majority in any public or 
deliberative meeting. This without doubt is an expe- 
dient of much later date. But where difference of 
opinion prevails, the Assembly breaks into opposing 
factions. So it was in the drunken Assembly men- 

i II. xviii. 502. Cf. ii. 211. 2 n. xv iii. 508. 3 II. vii. 381. 



440 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



tioned in the Odyssey ; 1 and the minority which then 
set sail was afterwards again divided. 2 In like manner, 
of the Ithacan Assembly in the Twenty-fourth Odyssey, 
the majority determined on neutrality, but the minority 
took arms. And, throughout the Voyages, we see how 
freely the crews of Odysseus both spoke and acted, 
when they thought fit, in opposition to his views. 
These illustrations might be yet further extended. 

The truth is, that everywhere among the Greeks of 
Homer we find the signs of an intense corporate or 
public life, subsisting, and working side by side, with 
that of the individual. Of this corporate life, the 
Agore is the proper organ. If a man is to be described 
as great, he is always great, in debate and on the field : 
if as insignificant, then he is of no account either in 
battle or in council. The two grand forms of common 
and public action are taken for the tests of the indi- 
vidual man. 

When Homer wishes to describe the Kuklopes as 
living in a state of barbarism, he says, not that they 
have no kings, or no towns, or no army, but that they 
have no Assemblies, and no administration of justice. 3 
The source of life lay in the community, and the com- 
munity met in the AgorS. So deeply imbedded is this 
sentiment in the mind of the Poet, that it seems as if 
he could not conceive an assemblage of persons having 
any kind of common function, without their having, so 
to speak, a common soul too in respect of it. 

Of this common soul, the organ, in Homer, is the 
Tis or 'Somebody:' by no means one of the least 
remarkable, though he has been perhaps the least re- 



1 Od. iii. 139. 



2 Od. iii. 162. 



3 Od. ix. 112. 



POLITY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 441 

garded, among the personages of the Poems. The Tis 
of Homer seems to be what in England we now call 
Public Opinion : the immediate impression created in 
the general mind by public affairs, or by the conduct 
of the chiefs. We constantly come upon occasions, 
when the Poet has to tell us what was the prevailing 
sentiment of the Greek army. He might have done 
this didactically, or by way of narrative. He has 
adopted a method more poetical and less obtrusive. 
He proceeds dramatically, through the medium of a 
person and of a formula, 4 Hereupon, thus spoke some- 
body:' 

6de 6s Tig elireotcev. 

This would be sufficiently noteworthy if we found it 
only among the Greeks in war, and again in peace : 
for, when Odysseus causes music and dancing in his 
palace, with a view to producing an impression on the 
people of the town of Ithaca, it is Tis who tells what 
it was. 1 But it is not only in a normal state of things 
among his own people, that Tis is found. When 
Greeks and Trojans meet for the purpose of the Pact, 
there is a Tis for the Trojans also. 2 The Suitors, 
again, are a body of dissolute and selfish youths, and 
are competitors with each other for a prize which but 
one among them can enjoy. Yet in some sense they 
are bound together by a common interest of iniquity ; 
and, although we are introduced to many of them in- 
dividually by their speeches, yet they too have a Tis 3 
who expresses their general sentiment on occurrences 
as they pass. Too broad to be confined to Greece, this 



i Od. xxiii. 148-152. 



2 II. iii. 319. 



3 Od. ii. 324. 



442 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



conception is not even restricted to mankind : and Tis 
appears in Olympos, expressing the common or average 
sentiment of the assembled gods. 1 

This remarkable and characteristic creation remains, 
I believe, the exclusive property of Homer. But per- 
haps we may discern in the Homeric Tis the primary 
ancestor of the famous Greek Chorus. Like Tis, the 
Greek Chorus is severed from all mere individuality, 
and expresses the generalized sentiment of the body or 
people to which it belongs, in the highest and best 
sense which their prevailing standard will allow. 

Except in the mouth of the scoundrel Thersites, 
nothing like political discontent appears in any part 
of the Poems of Homer. The popular sentiment ad- 
verse to Odysseus on his return to Ithaca is probably 
a personal resentment, not only for the death of the 
Suitors, but for all the crews of his good ships lost in 
the War and on the Voyage. There is no invidious 
distinction between class and class, nor any of the 
social feuds which might be its result. No recognized 
portion of the community is imagined to require re- 
pression or restraint from the government. The King, 
or Chief, is uplifted to set a high example, to lead the 
common counsels to common ends, to conduct the 
public and common, intercourse with heaven, to decide 
the strifes of private persons, which might bring 
danger to the common weal, and to defend the borders 
of the common territory from invasion. 

For the chief component parts of Greek society, we 
have first the King and his family. Round him are 
his Kerukes, Serjeants or heralds, his only executive 



i Od. viii. 328. 



POLITY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



443 



government: his Bard, ever giving delight and receiv- 
ing respect : his Seniors, who assist in council, and 
in judgment: his Nobles, the only wealthy of the 
period. From them the Prince or King seems to be 
in general pretty broadly distinguished ; for the rule 
is that the legitimate son, the heir-apparent, contracts 
marriage beyond his own borders. But Megapenthes, 
the serf-born son of Menelaos, marries in Sparta it- 
self. 1 

Under the name of demioergoi, 2 which includes 
both the professional men and the skilled laborers of 
the community, Homer includes the prophet, the 
physician or wound-healer, the carpenter or wright, 
and the Bard. 3 The fact that the worker in metals is 
not included, tends to show, in accordance with all 
the other evidence of the Homeric text, that this 
kind of labor had not attained to any great degree 
of development in Greece. 

That the pursuits of manual labor were not below 
the notice even of princes, we find from the case not 
only of Odysseus, but of Paris, 4 who joined in the 
building of his own palace ; and of Lucaon, who was 
cutting young wood for his chariot, when, for the first 
time, he fell into the hands of Achilles. 5 Bards, heralds, 
and seers, are all persons of general influence and 
importance. 6 We hear of merchants only within the 
Phoenician circle : as Mentes of the Taphians, and again 
from the mouth of Eurualos in Scherie. 7 We have also 



i Od. iv. 5, 10, 797 ; xi. 85 ; et alibi. * Od. xvii. 383. 

3 In another place he adds the herald, Od. xix. 135. 

4 II. vi. 314. 5 II. xxi. 35. 

6 Od. iii. 267 ; xvii. 263 ; xxiv. 439. 7 Od. i. 183 ; viii. 161. 



444 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



in Scherie aisumnetai, or masters of the ceremonies, 
who make the arrangements needful for the dance. 1 

There are inferior professions of partially skilled 
hand-laborers ; among whom it is interesting to notice 
the drain-digger ; the fisherman, named only in Ithaca ; 2 
the charioteer, and the woodman, for both of whom, 
says the Poet, as well as for the pilot, skill avails far 
more than force. 3 

But the persons named in connection with special 
employments are rather classes, distinguished from the 
general body of the community, than the parts which 
make up the aggregate. They seem all to be picked 
men. Considering on the one hand the position of the 
masses in the Assemblies, and the appeals there made 
to them, on the other, the absence, in both the Poems, 
of anything like an extended personal following attached 
to the lyings or chiefs, I come slowly to the conclusion, 
as most agreeable to the evidence, which is far from 
demonstrative, that the bulk of the community were 
probably small or peasant proprietors, tilling their own 
lands. The mode of their equipment as heavy, not 
light, armed soldiers, tends to sustain this conclusion. 
Even the sons of the slave D olios appear to put on the 
ordinary armor. 4 We have then probably before us, 
in the composition of .early Greek society, that mixture 
and gradation of fortunes, which so much contribute to 
the unity and strength of a community : the eminent 
men leading because they were the best, and the mass 
content to follow them for the same good reason. 

The representation of the state of society and of 



i Od. viii. 258. 
3 II. xxiii. 315-318. 



2 Od. xxiv. 419. 
4 Od. xxiv. 496. 



POLITY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



445 



opinion in Ithaca, contained in the Odyssey, is ex- 
tremely curious. The term Baailsvg, so carefully limited 
in the Iliad, is here extended to the chief nobles ; as 
it is in Scherie to the twelve principal persons who 
were counsellors of Alkinoos : and, along with it the 
epithet AiorQ^y\q undergoes a similar enlargement. 
Since Homer drew from hearsay his materials for treat- 
ing of Scherie, we cannot reason confidently upon its 
institutions in their minute detail. But, when he 
speaks of Greek society, the case is different. And, 
in effect, what the Poet shows us in the dominions of 
Odysseus is a great political change, brought about by 
the absence, through a prolonged period, of a powerful 
influence much more personal than traditional. King- 
ship subsisted at that period in virtue of the strong 
mind and strong hand of the King. Only the aizeos, 
the man within the flower of his manhood, was equal 
to it. Laertes from his age, Telemachos from his 
youth, Penelope as a woman, and thus open to the ac- 
cess of suitors, were unequal to the charge. In the 
absence, then, of the true King, each minor personage 
of the order of nobles apparently set up as king. More- 
over local attachment prevailed over central influences ; 
and the people, at least of the town, were with the op- 
ponents of Odysseus. Except on his own estate, the 
influence of his family, after a course of years, was 
gone. Telemachos can only say that by no means are 
the whole of the demos 1 or people averse to him. The 
Suitors, shut within the palace for the terrible assault 
of Odysseus, feel that, if they could but get out into 
the town, so as to give the alarm, they should be safe. 



i Od. xvi. 114. 



446 JUVENTUS MUNDI. 

After the fact, Odysseus proposes by a stratagem to 
arrest any rumor of the slaughter. 1 On finding Laertes, 
he declares, ' we have no time to lose.' 2 He had 
quitted the town at once, evidently as having no hope 
there. A civil war is the sequel to the return of the 
legitimate Sovereign, who has only to rely, after the 
favor of the gods and his own powerful mind, upon a 
mere handful of dependants. Odysseus calls the Suit- 
ors, whom he had destroyed, the stay or strength 3 of 
the community ; and the Shade of Agamemnon recog- 
nizes them as the flower of men. 4 Doubtless their 
party was strengthened by their King's having lost all 
his comrades, and by the biting appeal 5 they were thus 
enabled to make to the relatives of the dead. His 
sources of aid seem to have lain in Pulos and in Elis. 6 
Of the Ithacan Assembly, near half 7 went to take arms 
against Odysseus ; while the others stood neuter. The 
great Chief had on the moment but twelve men in all to 
resist them : three of his family, nine serfs. 

A flood of light is thrown, from this picture in 
miniature, upon the structure of society, and the nature 
of political power among the Hellenes of the heroic, or 
the immediately post-heroic, age. 

Laws can hardly exist without writing ; and, in the 
age of Homer, writing, or what stood in its place, was 
at most no more than the secret of a few families of 
Phoenician extraction. It was certainly unavailable 
for any purpose of general interest. A Greek word for 
4 law ' is not to be found in Homer. With him, vopog 
means a tract of pasture. 8 We find however («) dixij 

i Od. xxiii. 137-140. 2 Od. xxiv. 324. 
4 Od. xxiv. 106-108 ; cf. 429. 
6 Od. xxiv. 430, 436. 1 Od. xxiv. 463. 



3 Od. xxiii. 121. 
5 Od. xxiv. 428. 
8 Od. ix. 217. 



POLITY OP THE HEROIC AGE. 



447 



and dkou, (6) depict eg. The latter appear to be the 
principles of right ; the former, those principles of right 
put into action by judicial proceedings, when they have 
become matter of contention; the two 1 are clearly 
enough to be distinguished. 

In the absence of law, strictly so called, the Oath was 
of peculiar importance. It was so solemn, that the only 
special offence, expressly marked out for punishment in 
the other world, is the offence of perjury. 2 And it was 
so effectual, as not only to bind man to man, but deity . 
to deity. 3 The river Styx was the great Oath of the 
gods, 4 evidently implying their liability, not indeed to 
death, but to deposition ; and the possibility that they 
might exchange bright Olympos, as the older dynasties 
of Nature-Powers had exchanged it, for the dreary 
Underworld. The Trojans break faith and oath in 
the Fourth Iliad : the Greeks never. Yet Autolucos, 
the father of Penelope, had received from Hermes 5 the 
gifts of pilfering and perjury ; and thus moral corrup- 
tion had begun to distil from depraved belief. 

The xeinos or xenos, in the largest sense, com- 
prehends and brings together three very different 
classes. 

1. The itinerating beggar, 6 ptochos pandemios, 
who, in days when money did not exist as a circulating 
medium, sought relief in the form of hospitality, relief 
in kind ; and in some sense paid for it by carrying 
news. 7 

2. The Suppliant (h iket e s), who may be of station 
high or low, but who appears with a suit for shelter, 



l Od. ix. 215. 

3 II. xiv. 278 ; xv. 36-46. 

5 Od. xix. 396. 6 Od. xviii. 1. 



2 II. iii. 279. 
4 II. xv. 37. 
7 Od. xviii. 7. 



448 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



subsistence, or other aid, under the pressure of some 
peculiar necessity or calamity. 

3. The xeinos proper ; the guest, whose need arises 
simply out of the fact that, being away from home, he 
has not his resources at hand, and therefore seeks to 
have them supplied in the home of another. 

Slavery is not a prominent feature of Greek society 
in the Homeric age. It would appear to have been 
nearly or perhaps wholly confined to the establish- 
ments, in-door and out-door, of the chiefs. The lan- 
guage of Achilles in the Underworld, 4 rather would I 
serve for hire even with a poor employer,' seems to 
imply that hire was the ordinary basis of service. If 
Odysseus had had very numerous slaves, without doubt 
he and Telemachos would have been represented in 
the Odyssey as having raised and armed them against 
the party of the Suitors ; which they did with the mere 
handful at their command. The slaves appear to have 
been few, in comparison with the number of the com- 
munity. The demos or free people, who constituted 
the Assemblies, seem also to have composed the mass 
of the population of cultivators. 

The two sources named for supplying slaves are 

1. War; 

2. Kidnapping. 

In all cases this kidnapping is of single individuals. 
We hear of it as practised by the Phoenicians, the Ta- 
phians (a branch of the Phoenicians), and the Thes- 
protians. Not by the Greeks ; though Melanthios, the 
goatherd in the Odyssey, without doubt a serf, as he 
was the son of a serf, 1 among his other insolences, 
threatens to carry away Eumaios, and sell him. 2 

i Od. xvii. 212 ; iv. 736- 2 Qd. xvii. 249. 



POLITY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



449 



We do not hear of any physical want or suffering in 
connection with the condition of slaves ; nor ought we 
to interpret too rigidly the prophecy of Hector concern- 
ing Andromache, as proving that they were treated 
with rudeness. 1 But Homer saw both the enfeebling 
and the depressing effect, the moral blight, of even a 
mild slavery, and has recorded it in golden words. 
With Homer, a slave is but one half of a man. 2 

Slaves, from the circumstances of the case, were 
often of birth and manners not unequal to those of 
their masters. Eumaios was the son of the ruler of his 
country ; and was brought up together with Ctimen£, 
the daughter of Laertes. 3 

The slavery of Homer's time is a mitigated slavery. 
It nowhere appears in association with wanton cruelty 
or oppression. The slave may be familiar with his 
master : Odysseus, on the Return, is kissed by his 
slaves. The slave may acquire property, may be the 
master of other slaves, as Eumaios was of Mesaulios; 4 
finally, he is trusted with arms. A good master is ex- 
pected to supply his slave with a wife. 

The absence of the chiefs and army from Greece for 
a lengthened period, without any danger arising from 
this source, of itself appears to prove, that slaves must 
have constituted an element numerically insignificant 
in that country. Another reason for this belief is to 
be found in the fact, that no distinction appears to have 
been drawn, as in after times, of a nature to make 
laborious manual employments dishonorable. As it 
was part of the prized accomplishments of a King like 

1 II. vi. 454-463. ^Comp. II. xxii. 484-507 ; where not slavery, but 
orphanhood, is supposed. 2 Od. xvii. 323. 

3 Od. xv. 413, 363. * Od. xiv. 449. 

29 



450 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Odysseus to be able to drive the plough, we may be 
almost sure that field-labor could not have been, either 
universally or generally, intrusted to the hands of 
slaves. 

The general picture presented to us is, that of free 
self-governing agricultural societies under mild aristo- ' 
cratic rule, the mass living in a self-sufficing independ- 
ence ; and only a comparative handful, it is probable, 
dependent in any degree, however small, on the assist- 
ance of slaves for the management of their households 
and estates. At the same time, as between the serf 
and the thes or laborer for hire, it is material to 
remember that, in the Homeric period, wages could 
only be paid in kind, as there was no currency avail- 
able. This being so, the hired freeman, if without 
other resource, might perhaps, as to material comforts, 
be in no better position than the bondman. 

We have no trace of slavery in the Greek army, nor 
of any large or numerous class of slaves anywhere. 
The probable inference again, is, that slaves consti- 
tuted but a limited proportion of the community. 

It is possible that gold and silver may to a very 
trifling extent have been used as a common measure 
of commodities, or medium of exchange. For gold is 
frequently mentioned as a constituent part of stored 
wealth ; and we can hardly suppose that it was so 
stored simply for use in the manufacture of commodities 
for the owners by gilt plating or otherwise. But, on 
the other hand, other commodities are not valued in 
gold or in silver. Only the payment of the Judge's 
fee, or prize, in gold, on the Shield of Achilles, 
approaches to a case of the use of gold money. It 
is like the s em at a or signs on the tablets of Proitos, 



POLITY OP THE HEROIC AGE. 



451 



the germ of a practice rather than the practice 
itself. 

The arms of Glaucos and of Diomed, the tripod 
which is the first prize for wrestlers in the Games, and 
the skilled captive woman who was the second, are all 
valued or priced in oxen ; 1 and the ox is the commo- 
dity which represents in Homer what we now term the 
measure of value, as far as it can be said to be repre- 
sented at all. The captive Lucaon fetches for Achilles 
the value of a hundred oxen: 2 Eurucleia is sold to 
Laertes for the value of twenty. 3 The Suitors promise 
to Odysseus the value of a hundred oxen each, as ran- 
som. 4 The most detailed account in the Poems of a 
commercial transaction is in the Seventh Iliad, where 
Euneos gives wine in exchange for slaves, hides, cop- 
per, iron, and oxen. The four first-named commodities 
he might well carry away from a camp for sale else- 
where. As to slaves, for example, the skilled woman 
of the Iliad is worth only four oxen : Eurucleia in Ithaca 
worth twenty. They represent respectively the prices 
of -an exporting market with a glut, and of a market of 
import with a demand from over sea scantily supplied. 
The oxen which Euneos took, he possibly took from 
those who were overstocked, and sold again on the spot 
to such as chanced to want them. 5 

Tims we can understand why iEschylus represents 
the ox as the earliest sign impressed on money. 6 

Among the leading political ideas exhibited in the 
Homeric Poems will be found the following : — 

Authority to rule is derived from heaven, and the 



i II. xxiii. 702-705. 
4 Od. xxii. 57-59. 



2 II. xxi. 79. 

5 II. vii. 467-475. 



3 Od. i. 431. 
6 Agam. 37. 



452 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



abuse of this authority, the corruption and the crimes 
of rulers, are marked by divine judgments on a land. 

Equality is not dreamt of; but liberty is highly 
prized. 

A strong sense of responsibility weighs upon the 
mind of any ruler not utterly corrupt. 

The possessions and honors of kings are not un- 
conditional, but are held by them in trust for the 
performance of public duties ; among these, in order 
that they may set an example to the people in time 
of danger. 

The gravest matters affecting the public interest are 
debated and decided in the Assemblies of the people. 

Discussion is conducted in general by persons en- 
joying weight from their age, station, birth, or ability ; 
in a word, by the class possessed of leisure and social 
influence ; but the deliberation and assent of the As- 
semblies are free. 

A public opinion readily forms and freely circulates 
among the people, approving or condemning the acts 
of those in authority. 

Publicity attends all judicial and deliberative pro- 
ceedings ; but a council of chiefs often privately pre- 
pares matter for the Assembly. 

The will of the Assembly takes effect in the Act of 
the Executive. 1 

Speech is the great accomplishment of man ; and is 
the main instrument of government in peace, as the 
sword is in war. These two powers, representing 
moral and martial force respectively, stand in a posi- 
tion of honor peculiar to themselves. 



i Od. iii. 99. 



POLITY OF THE HEROIC AGE. 



453 



These political ideas are traceable in the Olympian, 
as well as in the human, society ; but their application 
and development are less satisfactory in that upper 
region. 

The bond that held Greek society together in the 
Homeric time, and that secured the basis on which it 
was to be organized and developed, was fivefold ; and 
the strands of this well-knit rope are represented re- 
spectively by single words. 

1. 0e6g, the Deity, and the worship of Immortal and 

unseen Beings in all its various forms. 

2. 08[iig, the principle of social right and duty, chiefly as 

between neighbors and fellow-citizens. 

3. "Ogxog, the ultimate sanction of good faith. 

4. Eeivog, representing the basis of kindly and friendly re- 

lation, and of good offices among men, beyond the 
limits of polity and of class. 

5. rd\xog, the'great institution of marriage, determining the 

relation between the two varieties of human kind ; 
constituting the family, and providing for the contin- 
uance of the species. 

The one great creative and formative idea which 
runs through the whole of these is Reverence, that 
powerful principle, the counter-agent to all meanness 
and selfishness, which obliges a man to have regard to 
some law or standard above that of force, and extrinsic 
to his own will, his own passions, or his own pro- 
pensities. 

The five given above are the main channels into 
which the stream is distributed. But they have many 
subdivisions or specific forms, such as — 

Reverence for Parents ; 
Reverence for Kings ; 



454 



JUYENTUS MUNDI. 



Reverence for the old ; 

Reverence for beauty ; of which perhaps the very 
noblest example ever given is the manner in which 
Odysseus is struck by Nausicaa. One much lower, 
and more Asiatic, is that of the Trojan dr^wysQOVTeg, 
or Elders, when Helen goes forth to the Wall ; 1 

Reverence for the opinion of fellow-men ; 2 

Reverence for the dead ; 

Reverence for the weak and poor. 

These emotions and habits of reverence were to the 
Greek mind and life what the dykes in Holland are 
to the surface of the country ; shutting off passions 
as the angry sea, and securing a broad open surface 
for the growth of every tender and genial product of 
the soil. 



i Od. vi. 149 seqq. II. iii. 154-158. 



2 Ii. ix. 459-461. 



CHAPTER XII. 



Resemblances and Differences between the Greeks and 
the Trojans. 

This subject, which has been treated with some 
detail in the ' Studies on Homer/ 1 will now be touched 
on only so far as to present its main heads. 

Sufficient reason has perhaps been given for the 
belief that there is a double ethnical relation between 
the inhabitants of Troas and of Greece. The common 
soldiery appear to correspond, without any sensible in- 
feriority of the Trojans, who, however, appear to have 
been in greater proportion lightly armed ; and all that 
we learn of the people tends to associate them, in 
blood and language, with what we may largely call the 
Pelasgian and more archaic element in Greece. The 
ruling houses, again, are connected in the bonds of 
hospitality, as appears from the visit of Paris to Mene- 
laos. The son of Anchises resided in Greece. 2 Diomed 
has the xenial relation with , the Lycian Glaucos. Re- 
lations to the line of the personage termed Aiolos, so 
powerful in Greece, are visible in the Dardanian royal 
family. 



i Vol. iii. Ilios, pp. 145-247. 



2 II. xxiii. 296. 



456 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



When we turn to language, a near relation, perhaps 
that of substantial identity, seems probable. A Greek 
name, Astuanax, lord of the city, is expressly stated 
to have been given by the Trojans to the son of Hector. 
The Trojan army, indeed, is stated to have spoken 
various tongues ; but this is placed in immediate con- 
nection with the presence of the Epicouroi or al- 
lies, 1 one race of whom, the Carians, are called speakers 
of a barbarous, meaning probably a wholly foreign, 
language. 

In the matter of religion there is little, if any, dif- 
ference between the mere names of such gods as are 
brought prominently forward. As the great contro- 
versy was to be fought out in Olympos, no less than on 
earth, Homer was in a manner compelled to find a 
meeting-point for the mythologies of the respective 
parties. We find mentioned expressly the worship in 
Troas of Zeus, Athen£, Apollo, and Hephaistos. Leto 
and Artemis attend in the temple of Apollo on Per- 
gamos. Ares must have been known as a god to those, 
for whom he fights. Aphrodite was eminently Trojan, as 
we see from her favor for Paris; her passion for 
Anchises ; her marriage-gift to Andromache ; her 
ministerial charge over the body of Hector ; 2 and 
from the biting taunts of Pallas, of Helen, and of 
Diomed. 3 Hermes is said to give increase to the flocks 
of Phorbas ; 4 yet does not appear to be recognized as 
a known Trojan deity by Priam, when he gives his 
name, and specifies in addition that he is an immortal 
god. 5 Poseidon had a deadly quarrel with Troy, but 



i II. ii. 803-806. 

3 II. iii. 400-402 ; v. 348-351, 420-425. 
5 II. xxiv. 461. 



2 II. xxiii. 184-187. 
4 II. xiv. 490. 



THE GREEKS AND THE TROJANS. 



457 



was in close and friendly relations with the Dardanian 
branch. 1 Here is named as the wife of Zeus, and as 
slighted in the Judgment of Paris. 2 

Now, a great River — not the humanized spirit of a 
River, but the River itself — the Scamandros, or Xan- 
thos, of the Ilian plain, appears in the Theomachy, and 
fights on the side of Troy against Hephaistos. Here 
is an indication, which cannot be mistaken, that a 
Nature-worship, alien to the Olympian system, pre- 
vailed in Troas. We have other signs of this great 
and, probably, fundamental distinction of the two 
religions. While Her£ is so faintly sketched, her 
Pelasgian prototype, Gaia, is an object of ordinary 
worship in Troas, although in Greece she is banished 
to the Underworld. And the Sun (Helios) of the 
Iliad sympathizes with the Trojans, while the Apollo 
of the First Book shows signs of affinity with that 
luminary, that are rooted perhaps in his name P hoi- 
bos, but that are not allowed any place or recognition 
in the Olympian scheme. Of all single passages, that 
which most gives the key to the distinction is the 
speech of Menelaos before the Pact, 3 where he proposes 
a joint act of religion to be performed on behalf of 
both parties. The Greeks are to offer a single lamb 
to Zeus ; and the Trojans two, one of them to the 
Earth, the other to the Sun. Eos, the morning, an- 
other Nature-Power, is made known to us as the 
bride of Tithonos, and may therefore be set down 
among the deities of Troy. It does not seem clear 
that she was in any way impersonated in Greece. 

It is very probable, that Hephaistos and other dei- 

i II. xx. 290-292. 2 ii. x. 329 ; xiii. 826 ; xxiv. 29. 

3 II. iii. 103. 



458 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



ties may have been known under forms of tradition 
variously modified, in Troas and in Greece respec- 
tively ; and, indeed, in different portions of one and 
the same country. These forms, however distinct or 
discordant, the plan of Homer required him in some 
manner to amalgamate. 

So much for abstract belief. As to the modes of its 
development, they would appear to have been on the 
Trojan side sacerdotal, on the Greek imaginative. In 
the Greek system, besides the great Olympian deities, 
we have the gods of the older dynasty, and of the 
Underworld ; the Giants ; the Nymphs, and other per- 
sonages, anthropomorphically conceived, and presiding 
over groves, rivers, meadows ; the great ethical fig- 
ures of the Destinies and the Erinues, of Ate and 
the Prayers ; and a multitude of purely poetical im- 
personations, such as Terror, Rumor, and the like. 
In Troas, we seem to find none of this large and 
varied apparatus, except the names of certain Nymphs, 
who are mentioned as mothers of human children. In- 
deed, even the future state seems to have been feebly con- 
ceived in Troy; 1 and the oath of Hector to Dolon 2 
makes no allusion to the penalty of perjury, which, 
as we see, was incurred by Pandaros without shame 
or hesitation. Not only do we still hear of the illus- 
trious Shade of Patroclos after death, but the passage 
of the souls of the Suitors from Ithaca is vividly de- 
scribed in the Odyssey ; 3 but of the Trojans nothing- 
is ever told us beyond the grave, except one or two 
repetitions of the mere formula that they went to 
Hades. A materializing religion is not favorable to 



i II. vi. 422 ; xxii. 482. 



2 n. x. 329. 



3 xxiv. 1-10. 



THE GREEKS AND THE TROJANS. 459 



the retention of the belief in a future state ; and hu- 
man experience seems to have established widely, up 
to the present point of the history of the race, the 
connection between such a belief and the repression 
of perjury. 

But when we turn to sacerdotal institutions and 
ritual forms, again the contrast is a striking one. 

The three subjects of priesthood, temples, and glebes, 
seem to be closely connected ; especially the first and 
third : for where there was an estate, we may be pretty 
sure that there was some official person, namely, the 
priest, to live upon the proceeds. 

Now we never hear of a temenos, or consecrated 
glebe-land, for any deity, except four times. There is 
the temenos of Zeus in Gargaros ; 1 of Demeter in 
Thessaly ; 2 of Aphrodite at Paphos ; 3 and of the River 
Spercheios in Thessaly. 4 The first is in Troas ; the 
third in Cyprus ; the other two stand in evident con- 
nection with the old or Pelasgian worship. 

Let us next look to the Priests of the Poems. We 
have Chruses, the Priest of Apollo in Troas ; Maron, 
a priest of the same deity at Ismaros, among the 
Kikones, allies of Troy; and again in Troas, Dares, 
priest of Hephaistos ; Dolopion (areter, literally 
pray-er) of Scamandros ; Theano, priestess of Athene" ; 
Onetor, priest of the Zeus of Ida. But neither in the 
Greek army, nor in Greece itself, have we any mention 
of a priest contemporary with the Poems. Especially 
in the case of Ithaca this negative evidence is strong. 
I refer back to what has been already said on this 
subject in the description of the kingly office. 



i II. viii. 48. 
3 Od. viii. 362. 



2 II. ii. 696. 
4 II. xxiii. 148. 



460 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Besides the Priests, there is the separate order of 
Prophets. These are fully known in Greece under 
different names, and are recognized as one of the reg- 
ular standing professions in a community at peace, 
while Calchas is the mantis or prophet of the army. 
These organs of the deity interpret sometimes from 
signs and omens, sometimes without them. There 
was some degree of approximation between the two 
characters. A prophet, or seer, might be an inspector 
of sacrifices, though he did not offer them. 1 On the 
other hand, a priest was supposed to be capable of in- 
terpreting the divine will. 2 But distinctions of the 
social state serve sufficiently to manifest the separation 
of the two characters, even independently of the fact 
that the seer or prophet never offers sacrifice. For the 
last-named personage is distinguished from the rest of 
the community only by the possession of his gift ; 
whereas the priest appears to be wholly exempted from 
military service, and a kind of sanctity attaches to his 
character, as is most of all clearly shown by the fact 
that the offence of Agamemnon, which brought the 
Pest upon the Greek army, consisted only in his re- 
fusal to take ransom for the captive daughter of a 
priest, an act which he probably might have ventured 
with impunity in the case of the child even of a prince. 
Yet the teaching office, as far as we can trace it at all, 
seems to lie less with the priest, than with the prophet. 3 

With respect to temples, it is plain that Apollo had 
a temple at Putho, and probable that Pallas also had 
one at Athens. No temple is named in Ithaca. They 



1 II. xxiv. 221. Od. xxii. 318. 
3 Od. xxii. 313-315. 



2 II. i. 62. 



THE GREEKS AND THE TROJANS. 461 

seem to have abounded in Troas : and, in the Sixth 
Odyssey, the building of temples 1 is named as one of 
the elements of the construction of a city. It does not 
follow that these temples were in all cases roofed 
buildings : they may have been in some instances no 
more than consecrated inclosures. Even in the Greek 
camp, there was a central place for Assemblies, and for 
Suits : and here were the altars of the gods. 2 We are 
not entitled to infer from the existence of a temple in 
any particular place, the existence of a priesthood. 

The grove (alsos) appears to have been a common 
form for the site of religious worship, both in and out 
of Greece. 

In Troy, we hear of a statue or image of Athene^ 3 
to which was offered the Eobe, presented by the Trojan 
women in their solemn procession. And on the Shield 
of Achilles there are delineated figures 4 of that goddess 
and of Ar£s respectively, together with those of the 
armed bands under their several patronage. But no 
sanctity attends these figures ; they are simple repre- 
sentations of Art. We have no trustworthy trace of 
a statue used in worship, except the solitary case just 
named in Troy. And the common expression of Ho- 
mer, that the disposition of events lies in the lap of 
the gods, is perhaps sufficiently explained by the an- 
thropomorphic character of the Olympic scheme, if 
indeed it requires even that explanation. 

Lastly, the Trojans appear to be distinguished 5 for 
punctuality and liberality in sacrifice. But we hear of 
much neglect of this matter on the part of the Greeks. 



1 Od. vi. 10. 

4 II. xviii. 516-519. 



2 II. xi. 806-808. 
& II. iv. 48. 



3 II. vi. 303. 



462 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Menelaos, one of the best and purest characters among 
the Greek chieftains, was punished for his omission to 
offer up the proper hecatombs, by a long and trying 
detention in Egypt; 1 A like neglect was the cause of 
difficulties in the general Return of the Greek army. 2 
And before Troy, in the hasty construction of the 
trench and rampart, the whole of the army forgot the 
proper hecatombs. 3 The Trojans, then, much excelled 
their enemies in religious observance. It seems also 
true that, as between Greek and Greek, the pious ob- 
servers of the law of sacrifice were the better men. 
But we can in no manner claim for the Trojans a 
morality superior to that of their opponents. 

Rather, indeed, the reverse. In the War of Troy, 
justice is plainly with the Greeks. Of course I speak 
of the delineation of the case such as we have it in 
Homer, and do not inquire how far the Poet may have 
caused the scale to incline on behalf of his country by 
the weight of his own thoughts and wishes. The crime 
of Paris would have been gross, had it been merely an 
elopement. But it was an abduction ; and an abduc- 
tion, too, attended with mere thievery of goods. These 
features in our eyes are aggravations ; probably, in 
those of Homer and his contemporaries, they may have 
tended to mitigate the ofTence, by imparting to it some 
of the features of war. 4 And, in those days, abduction 
was probably not regarded as criminal in itself. But 
there always remains the grave offence of violated 
hospitality. And accordingly, while Helen shows 
marks of aversion for Paris, the Trojan people hate 

1 Od. iv. 351-353. 2 Od. iii. 141-145. 3 n. vii. 450. 

4 Compare the case of Heracles and Iphitos, Od. xxi. 22-30. 



THE GREEKS AND THE TROJANS. 463 

him like black death. 1 He contrives to hold his place 
by effrontery, and by bribes ; 2 and he is the object of 
sharp rebuke from Hector. 3 With the exception of 
Menelaos, we find much less indignation among the 
Greek chiefs, than we might have expected. Perhaps 
we may reasonably consider that in this, as in many 
later cases, the original causes of the quarrel were to 
a great extent lost and absorbed in its following inci- 
dents. Christian ideas, again, would fix a deeper guilt 
on Paris, especially under the actual circumstances, 
according as his adulterous connection was more pro- 
longed. But the offence of Paris is regarded in Homer 
as arising from want of self-control, rather than from 
hardened wickedness. It is always treated as an ate, 
into which weakness enters, and not, like the conduct 
of the Suitors, as an atasthalie, which is purely de- 
liberate and hardened. The evil act once perpetrated, 
Paris had a marriage of fact with Helen, who was in- 
stalled into the family of Priam : and of this marriage, 
odious as his character must be held, he is . in some 
sort the defender. It was not wholly unlike the steal- 
ing of a birthright ; which, once acquired, was valid. 
So the offence of Helen did not lie in living with a 
man who was not her husband, so much as having 
taken one husband in exchange for another. 

It is not unlikely that a more base and less manly 
morality among the Trojans may help to account for 
the patient endurance of so much privation and 
calamity for the sake of a man, who did not even re- 
deem his vices (so to speak) by personal courage, or by 
refinement of manners. 4 This conjecture is certainly 



i B. iii. 428-436 ; vi. 352. 
3 H. iii. 46-53. 



2 II. vii. 354-364 ; xi. 123. 
4 See the whole of II. iii. 



464 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



sustained 1 by the remark of the Senators on the wall. 
In Ithaca the same idea is ascribed to the dissolute 
Suitors. 2 But much of the cause must, I think, have 
lain in a difference of institutions. The outward forms 
of polity were not, indeed, broadly different. We have 
on both sides a King ; a Council, or Councillors at the 
least ; and an Assembly. But we have no indications 
of that spirit of freedom in the Trojan community, 
which found such noble scope in masculine debate, 
and even in positive action, among the Greeks. On 
both sides we find the germ of after-history : the 
Trojans bearing in many points the more Asiatic, the 
Greeks the more European stamp. The one type leans 
to fraud, where the other inclines to force. King Lao- 
medon defrauds Poseidon and Apollo ; Anchises steals 
from Laomedon, Paris from Menelaos : when Pandaros 
most grossly breaks the public faith, there is no 
reproach : Euphorbos wounds Patroclos in the back. 
The mild Menelaos declares, that the sons of Priam 
cannot be trusted. 3 Though a single passage in the 
Odyssey places flat perjury, as well as theft, under the 
patronage of Hermes, 4 the Greeks appear, throughout 
the Iliad, to pursue an honorable course of conduct. 

A tendency, again, to sensual excess appears to run 
in the royal line of Troy, under much less of restraint 
than we find in the Greek houses. This is especially 
remarkable in the mythology. Aphrodite and Eos, 
goddesses markedly Trojan, and Demeter, who is at 
least Pelasgian, condescended to irregular relations 
with men. 5 So it is with the Naiad nymphs of 

1 n. iii. 156. 2 Od. xviii. 160-212. 3 II. iii. 105. 

4 Od. xix. 396. 5 Od. v. 121-127. 



THE GREEKS AND THE TROJANS. 



465 



Troas. 1 But about the goddesses recognized by the 
Homeric Greeks, Pallas, Artemis, Persephone, and 
even Here, we hear nothing of the kind. 

The polygamy of Priam is wholly without counter- 
part in Greece. It seems, however, to be not that of 
a dissolute man, but of the head of a family regularly 
organized : not personal, but traditional. He had fifty 
sons, nineteen of them from the single womb of 
Hecuba ; 2 and . twelve daughters. Besides Hecuba, 
who was the principal queen, there were other recog- 
nized wives ; and behind them again were concubines, 
or else, which seems less probable, women in no per- 
manent relation whatever to the King. As ten sons of 
Antenor (besides one spurious son) are mentioned in 
the Iliad, all within the fighting age, and as his wife 
Theano is still blooming (callipareos)^ it seems highly 
probable that he, too, may have had more wives than 
one. 

Again, while the guilty act of Paris appears to have 
been regarded without moral disapproval in Troy, the 
first act of Aigisthos, the corruption of Clutaimnestra, 
was regarded by the gods as a crime, 3 even apart from 
the murder of Agamemnon : and their sentiment prob- 
ably expresses the average moral judgment of the 
country. Again, it was the main part of the guilt 
of the Suitors, which drew down so terrible a retribu- 
tion, that they sought to wed Penelope while her 
husband might still be supposed to be alive. 4 

The prevalence of polygamy, even in the highest 
families, is obviously adverse to the rule of an hered- 



1 II. vi. 21 ; xiv. 444 ; xx. 384. 2 n xx i v> 495 . vi _ 2 44, 248. 
3 Od. i. 35. * Od. xxii. 38. 

30 



466 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



itary succession to the crown. And it seems more 
than doubtful, from the Poems, whether this rule was 
observed on the Trojan side as fully as in Greece. 
Sarpedon and Glaucos are both called Kings : yet they 
belonged to the same kingdom, and they were cousins. 
Again, Sarpedon evidently had the chief place : yet 
Glaucos was the representative of the royal house in 
the male line, Sarpedon only in the female. Among 
the Greeks the title of King is only given to one 
person in one country, who must be either in pos- 
session, or heir-apparent. 

In the recital of the genealogy from Dardanos, 
iEneas does not give a precedence of superiority to 
either branch ; and he leaves 1 us to doubt, or to 
inquire from some other sources, which line was 
the senior, the Trojan or the Dardanian. Again, 
Achilles expressly taunts that chieftain as a candi- 
date for the succession in Troy after the death of 
Priam. 2 

Further, it appears open to much question, which of 
the sons of Priam himself we are to understand to 
have been the eldest. The whole responsibility of com- 
mand evidently lay upon Hector; and there. can be no 
doubt, even if it were only from the name given to his 
infant son by the people, that he was already the king- 
designate in the public view. But that name would 
have had little special significance, had Hector been 
sure of the succession by mere seniority. While the 
ability and value of Hector are of themselves sufficient 
to account for his prominent place, it is very difficult, 
except upon the supposition that seniority was more or 



i II. xx. 231-240. 



2 II. xx. 178-183. 



THE GREEKS AND THE TROJANS. 



467 



less the competing element with merit, to account 
for various features in the position of Paris. Alone 
among the children of Priam, he enjoys the title of 
Basileus or King, which is never given to Hector. 
Although utterly insignificant as a warrior, he is the 
chief in command of the second among the five di- 
visions of Trojans in the great battle of the Twelfth 
Book, as Hector is of the first. 1 Except Hector, Paris 
is the only prince who has a separate dwelling of his 
own on the hill of Pergamos. The other princes all, 
married as well as unmarried, sleep in the palace 
of their father. His expedition to Greece does not 
absolutely imply his being the eldest son ; but perhaps 
best accords with that otherwise far from improbable 
supposition. 

Again ; Paris, according to the representation of the 
Iliad, had been in manhood for at least twenty years. 
But Hector had one child only, a babe in arms. The 
word hebd, which expresses a full-grown, but still a 
blooming, manhood, is applied to Hector, 2 but not to 
Paris. It is applied indeed to Odysseus in Scheriei ; 
but this is when he had been preternaturally beautified 
under the restoring hand of Athend ; and also in the 
complimentary speech of a host. 3 We cannot suppose 
Hector to have been very different in age from 
Andromache : but she must still have been young, 
for her own grandfather had been alive during 
the War. 4 And finally, in her lament over her 
husband, she distinctly calls him young. 5 So much 
as to the apparent seniority of Paris ; and, with this, 

1 II. xii. 93. 2 ii. xx ii. 363. 3 Od. viii. 136. 

* II. vi. 426-428. 5 II. xxiv. 725. 



468 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



for the less defined and more lax law of succession 
in Troy. 

The relation of Priam to the districts or countries, 
which supplied the several contingents of his force, is 
but indistinctly conveyed to us. Yet it is probable 
from the arrangement and expressions of the Trojan 
Catalogue, and from minor circumstances, that, besides 
his kingdom of Ilion, he exercised over Dardania, and 
at least three other districts, an authority more or less 
like to that of Agamemnon over the Greek chieftains. 
However this may be, even the ancients justly described 
the Trojan war as the conflict of the Eastern with 
the Western world. And it foreshadowed other yet 
greater conflicts, down to our own day. 

Within the kingdom of Troy, we can more clearly 
discern the inferior compactness of political society, 
and its lower spirit of intelligence and freedom. We 
have every sign that the Trojan Elders did not act 
collectively as a Council. 1 This is an important 
defect in such a body with reference to the means of 
moral influence. But Assemblies met. There Anterior 
proposed, and Paris refused, the surrender of Helen : 
popular discontent was expressed ; and we are expressly 
told, that he was able to procure the defeat of other 
such proposals only by corruption. 2 An Assembly 
agreed to ask a truce for the burial of the dead. In 
an Assembly, Hector somewhat curtly put down the 
opposition of Poludamas as a stranger. 3 

But we have to remark, in the Trojan Assembly, as 
follows : — 



i II. ii. 788, 789. 



2 II. vii. 369. 



3 II. xii. 211-214. 



THE GREEKS AND THE TROJANS. 



469 



1. That there is no sign of its having been guided 
by men of wisdom and valor, but only by age and 
rank. 

2. That oratory does not seem to have been em- 
ployed in it as an instrument of persuasion. 

3. That the Elders, who assist Priam in public 
affairs, are simply the old men, and not, as with the 
Greeks, the chief and able men, belonging to the high 
families of the State. 

4. The Trojan Assembly does not clearly appear 
to have been convened on special occasions : but per- 
haps rather to have sat in permanence, in the sense 
of having only consisted of such persons as might 
chance to be present, at any given moment, in the 
places of public resort. 1 

There seems in Troy — as in the institutions we now 
term Asiatic — to be nothing to stand between royalty 
and the people. There was thus less balance of forces, 
less security against precipitate action ; a state of facts 
in all likelihood accompanied by less respect for public 
morality, less security for private rights. 

The Poet has given us, evidently of set purpose, 
a minor indication of Trojan inferiority, in the con- 
trasts lie presents of the silence and self-possession 
of the Greeks, with the din and buzz of the Trojans, 
as they marched to battle. At the burying of the dead, 
both armies wept and were silent : but the silence of 
the Trojans was because great Priam forbade a noise. 2 
A Trojan Assembly is uneasy and excitable : 3 never 
a Greek one. Even for the expressions of approval, 



1 II. ii. 788 ; vii. 414. 

2 II. vii. 426-432. 



Studies, pp. 237 seqq. 

3 II. vii. 346 ; iii. 2, 8 ; iv. 429, 436. 



470 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



different words are used : the Greeks were eager and 
vehement, the noise of the Trojans was promiscuous 
and tumultuous. In a word, all through the Poems, 
the Greek mind is evidently endowed with a finer 
sense, and a higher intelligence. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



The Geography of Homer. 

Section I. The Catalogue. 

The Catalogue of Homer is a great attempt to 
construct what may, for those times, be justly called a 
cadastral account of Greece ; together with an outline 
of the Trojan force, sufficient for the purposes of the 
Poem. 

In 348 lines, it contains 501 proper names, spread 
over diverse and very irregular tracts of country, and 
including many which belonged to personal history and 
genealogy. To recite this part of the Poem with accu- 
racy evidently required a great effort of memory. 
To write it, would have required no more effort, per- 
haps indeed less, than the average tenor of the Iliad. 
Now the Invocation to the Muses at the commence- 
ment, the most formal and elaborate which the Poems 
contain, clearly shows that the Bard was about to un- 
dertake a weighty task. Thus the Catalogue, together 
with its introduction, becomes a powerful piece of 
evidence to show that the Iliad was not written but 
recited. 

Next; the Genealogies of the Greek Catalogue, 



472 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



eleTen in number, testify in a remarkable manner to 
the historic aims of the Poet, which led him to connect 
all his leading personages with the past, at the very 
time when he was securing to them a deathless heri- 
tage in the future. Again, the Poet has avoided the 
error of confounding his primary with his secondary 
leaders. The greater chiefs have their descents traced 
singly, in various parts of the Iliad, so as to give them 
due prominence. But in the Catalogue a number of 
secondary genealogies are massed together. 

In his performance of this operation, where a re- 
citing Bard was to lose the aid commonly afforded him 
by the natural continuity of his subject-matter, Homer 
has sought for a substitute in a kind of mental figure- 
drawing. He divides the whole territory of Greece 
and the Islands into three circles, more or less regular 
and perfect ; with a fourth figure of the nature of a 
zigzag. 

The first circle begins with the Boeotians and ends 
with Mycenae ; containing nine contingents. 1 

The second is a zigzag, beginning with Lacedaemon, 
and ending with the Aitoloi ; and comprises seven 
contingents. 2 

The third is part of a circle of islands, beginning 
with Crete, and ending with Carpathos and other small 
islands. This portion gives four contingents. 3 

In the fourth, or Thessalian portion, 4 it is more 
difficult, and in some cases hardly feasible, to identify 
the sites ; but, as far as may be, the Poet appears to 
adhere to the same circular arrangement. Here also 
we have nine contingents. 

i II. ii. 494-580. 2 581-644. 3 645-680. * 681-759. 



THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOMER. 



473 



In each, then, of these four divisions of the terri- 
tory, the Poet makes his figure his guide, and pro- 
ceeds from each district to the one lying next to it 
on the proper line, until the figure is completed. 
Water sometimes intervenes ; but no territory seems 
to be skipped over. 

Thus there is a clue all along, except indeed at the 
points of transition from one division to another. For 
these, also, he seems to have provided. In each case 
he ends with a district, the neighbor to which, accord- 
ing to the line of his figure, has already been disposed 
of. Thus in the first, were he to go beyond Mycenae, 
he would find himself among the Boeotians again. So 
that he is as it were reminded, by this contrivance, to 
recommence. 

In the Trojan Catalogue, I find but two geneal- 
ogies ; and one of them is that of the Pelasgian 
leader. Now the Pelasgian blood, it will be remem- 
bered, seems to be the common bond between the 
masses on each side. 

In the Greek Catalogue, Homer specifies the respec- 
tive amounts of the contingents of force supplied from 
the different portions of the country. This is evidently 
meant to give to each chief and district his due posi- 
tion, relatively to the rest. In Troas he pursues no 
such arrangement ; for he had no such object. And 
among the Epicouroi, or Allies, 1 there was another 
difficulty ; as they came and went in successive reliefs, 
whereas the Achaians were a permanent force. 

Generally, I cannot but think that the comparison 
of the two Catalogues is highly unfavorable to the 



i II. ii. 816-839. 



474 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



theory which regards Homer as an Asiatic Greek : a 
theory which, in my opinion, should also be repudiated 
upon more comprehensive grounds. The Greek Cata- 
logue is charged throughout with what I may call local 
color and with visual epithets : epithets which imply 
some personal familiarity, and raise up a prospect or 
scene before the mental eye of a reader or a hearer. 
In the fifty- two lines of the Trojan Catalogue, it would 
be difficult to point out more than eight of these : 
the precipitous tops of Tereie and Mucale ; the fertile 
Larissa ; the wide-flowing of the limpid Axios ; the 
eddying Xanthos ; the dark water of Aisepos ; the 
lofty Eruthinoi ; the wooded hill of Phtheiroi. 1 Four 
only of these come from Asia Minor to the south of 
Troas, with which Homer is supposed to be so familiar. 
On the other side of the ^Egean, ten at least of such 
epithets are found within the thirteen lines that de- 
scribe the places, which supplied the Boeotian con- 
tingent. 

Section II. The Plain of Troy? 

The leading topical points in the plain of Troy are 
as follows : — 

1. The Scamandrian plain, 3 near the river Scaman- 
dros, forming the northern and western part of the 
Trojan plain, and reaching up to or near the Encamp- 
ment. 

2. The Ile'ian plain, 4 near the city, lying south and 
perhaps east from it. 



1 II. ii. 825, 829, 841, 849, 855, 868, 869, 877. 

2 Of this subject, no notice was taken in the ' Studies on Homer.' 

3 II. ii. 465. 4 II. xxi. 558. 



THE GEOGRAPHY OP HOMER. 



475 



3. The Scaian Gates, 1 north of the city, the ordinary 
way of exit to the plain. Near them is the phegos. 2 

4. The Dardanian Gates, south of the city, commu- 
nicating with Dardania on the hill. II. xx. 216-218. 

5. The junction of the rivers. II. v. 774. 

6. The ford of Xanthos, and the monument of Ilos 
near it. II. xxiv. 349. 

7. The toiveog, or wild fig-tree, near this ford (346- 
353 and 692-694), and the tomb of Ilos. Here was 
a Gxomri or place convenient for observation, and a 
wagon road. All these are near the city. II. vi. 433 ; 
xi. 166, 167 ; xxii. 145. 

8. The 0Qco(j{i6g, or roll, of the plain near the north- 
ern extremity, and the Encampment of the Greeks. 
II. x. 160 ; xi. 56 ; xx. 3. 

9. The Mound of Aisuetes, near enough to the En- 
campment for observations. II. ii. 793. 

10. The hillock Batieia, in the southern part of the 
plain, at some distance from the city. II. ii. 813. 

11. The two fountains of Scamandros. II. xxii. 147. 

12. The mouths of the two rivers, distinct one from 
another. See II. xii. 21. 

13. The quarters of Achilles and of Telamonian Ajax 
respectively, marking the extremes east and west of the 
Greek Encampment by the shore. II. xi. 5-9. 

The chief questions which arise are two. 

1. In what manner can the description given by 
Homer of the several parts be combined into a self- 
consistent whole ? 

2. In what manner can that description be reconciled 
with the actual geography of the plain of Troy under- 
stood, as it best may, from its present condition ? 



1 II. iii. 145, et alibi. 



2 II. vi. 237. 



476 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



The first of these two questions presents no insur- 
mountable difficulty. 

We have to imagine an irregular oblong lying north 
and south ; the north end formed by the coast and the 
Greek line of ships and cantonments, from that of 
Achilles on the west to that of Ajax on the east, run- 
ning along it ; the eastern side, by Simoeis ; the western 
by Scamandros, with rough and steep banks above, and 
with marshy lands near the mouth. The southern part 
of the plain is closed by the roots of Ida ; and in the 
south-western corner lies the city with a gate south- 
wards towards the hill, and towards Dardania which lay 
within its recesses ; also a gate (the Scaian Gate), with 
the ground descending towards the plain northwards. 

Passing from the north towards this gate, and having 
on the right hand the river, we come along a waggon- 
road to the wild fig-tree, where is the mound or tomb 
of Ilos, used apparently as a place of observation, like 
Batieia and the tomb of Aisuetes, 1 at the other end of 
the plain. This is hard by the river. We then have 
the Scaian Gate on the left ; and farther on are the 
two fountains of the Scamandros, near to which Hector 
passes,*in making the circuit of the city. 

It is plain, that there was a communication between 
the rivers ; but probably one dry in summer ; and we 
may take notice that it was not in the fierce Scaman- 
dros, but in Simoeis, that there lay both heroes and their 
spoils ; and this in the dust, not in the waters, as Virgil 
has vividly, but carelessly, represented. 2 

The ford of Xanthos we must understand to be a 
ford leading to the westward, not one crossed between 



i II. ii. 793. 



2 ^En. i. 100. 



THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOMER. 



477 



the city and the camp. With these suppositions, the 
topography of the plain appears to.be self-consistent. 

The best examination I have been able to make of 
the second question leads me to the conclusion that 
the description of Homer cannot be accurately fitted to 
the natural features of the plain, as they now are, or 
even as we can probably suppose them to have been 
some three thousand years ago. 

There is no site near the two fountains, on which 
the city can have been placed, of such a nature as to 
allow of the threefold circuit ascribed to Hector flying, 
and to Achilles pursuing him. 

The general idea conveyed by the Iliad of the dis- 
tance between the city and the encampment is, that it 
was short. After the second Battle, in Book viii. 
Hector holds an Assembly. The Trojans had pressed 
upon the Greek entrenchment, and their gathering is 
away from the ships, vooqi vmv (v. 490) ; but this 
seems to be explained by what follows as meaning 
simply clear of the field of battle, whereon lay the dead 
bodies. And it is expressly called £ near ' (hyyvg) that is, 
near the ships, in II. ix. 232. But Hector proceeds to 
give directions for fetching oxen and sheep, with wine 
and corn, from Ilion for the immediate repast ; and here- 
with the wood for cooking and for watchfires (505-507). 

Again, in II. viii. 532, Hector says, 4 to-morrow we 
shall see whether Diomed will drive me from the ships 
to the wall (evidently of the city), or whether I shall 
slay and spoil him.' Now the idea of the pursuit from 
the ships to the wall and the corresponding movement 
of the armies, are wholly inapplicable to a distance of 
five or six or more miles. 

On the whole, the length of the plain, and the dis- 



478 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



tance of the two fountains from the shore, are not 
in harmony with the descriptions of the forward and 
retrograde operations of the armies which took place 
on the great day of battles, ending with the unwilling 
retirement of the Sun in II. xviii. 239. Other incon- 
sistencies of a like nature might be pointed out. 

On the other hand, the number of the natural feat- 
ures portrayed, and the actual correspondence of most 
of them, when taken individually, with those we now 
discern, establish the general authenticity of the scene. 
They also lead to the conclusion that Homer may have 
seen it in person ; or may, by the power of a vigorous 
imagination, have conceived its general character, and 
the relative position of the points, from the narratives 
of eye-witnesses. 

But it seems plain, that he did not sing either on the 
spot, or to persons minutely acquainted with the topo- 
graphy ; and not unlikely, that he generalized his mate- 
rials, and used them with a certain license, as a poet, 
for the purposes of his art. 

Lastly : I cannot but observe the analogy between 
this lo^se placement of objects, each of which singly 
had been vividly conceived, and the indefinite method 
of handling geographical points on a large scale, in the 
Outer Voyage of the Odyssey. In the latter case we 
are morally certain that he spoke at secondhand ; and 
this tends to diminish the unlikelihood that the Song 
of Troy was composed without personal experience of 
the spot to aid the work. 



THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOMER. 



479 



Section III. The Outer Greography. 

The geography of Greek experience, as exhibited by 
Homer, is limited, speaking generally, to the iEgean 
and its coasts, with the Propontis as its limit in the 
North-east, with Crete for a southern boundary, and 
with the addition of the western coast of the peninsula 
and its islands, as far northward as the Leucadian rock. 
Kespecting that rock, and respecting the conformation 
of Corfu (Scherie) and the shape of Ithaca, Homer had 
some accurate information. But a visit to that region 
in 1858-9 convinced me that the Poet, who described 
the view of Corfu 1 from the north as lying on the sea 
like a shield, never eould have seen it ; that he was not 
personally acquainted with the topography of Ithaca ; 
that he guessed at, and over-estimated, its size ; and, as 
is demonstrable from several passages in the Odyssey, 2 
that he has given it a wrong relative position. 

Beyond the limits I have named, all ordinary navi- 
gation was conducted by the Phoenicians ; and upon 
these mariners, possibly in a few cases on their settlers 
or colonists in Greece, Homer must have depended for 
his information. At any period, such information could 
only give rise to very inaccurate geographical results. 
But we cannot even expect a resemblance to the actual 
face of earth, in a case where not only are the points 
described by those who would naturally seek both to 
excite and to deter, but where they could be nowhere 
arranged and digested, except only in the brain of the 

1 Od. v. 281. 

2 Especially Od. iv. 844-847, and Od. ix. 25-26 ; lines which it has 
in vain been attempted to force into conformity with actual geography. 



480 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Poet, ideally compounding in the mind what fell upon 
the ear. 

It appears to me, that interpreters have been wholly 
wrong, when they have laboriously strained their en- 
deavors to fit the Outer Geography of Homer to the actual 
surface of the globe. Unwilling to recognize error in 
his descriptions, they have closed their eyes to much 
really indisputable evidence of it that the text supplies ; 
and have, after a sort, assigned to him geographical 
knowledge which he did not possess, at the expense of 
that mental self-consistency, and that plastic power$ 
with both of which he was endowed in a degree never 
surpassed among the sons of men. It was no reproach 
to him, if he believed in a great sea, connecting the 
Adriatic and the Euxine ; but it would have been at 
variance with all the rules of his mental action, if he 
had spoken without any definite meaning, when he 
treats of sailing and floating distances, of the direction 
of the wind, or of the position of the stars : if he had 
forgotten his distinction between land of the continent 
and island, or if he had placed the sunrise in the West. 

No doubt his descriptions are very vague in some 
cases, and especially as to the Island of Calypso. The 
fact seems to be, that he was misled not only by false- 
hood, but by truth. When informants, speaking of the 
same region, described it as one of all but perpetual 
day, and also as one of night all but perpetual, although 
both these statements were true, he had not the key to 
their truth in the annual revolution of the earth com- 
bined with the declension of its axis from the perpendic- 
ular ; and thus he could only seek refuge in vagueness 
from contradiction. Again, when he heard of great 
sea-currents, which set through the Bosphorus, the 



THE GEOGRAPHY OP HOMER. 



481 



Straits of Messina, the Straits of YenikalS, and the 
Straits of Gibraltar respectively, what means could he 
possess, considering the palpable points of resemblance, 
of effectually separating each one of these from the 
others ? Hence it is, as we shall find, that he carries 
his Thrinakie (or Sicily) to the immediate vicinity of 
the Bosphorus, consecrates it to the Sun, and places 
there the Oxen and the Nymphs belonging to that 
deity. 

The proper object of our search is, not a forced ac- 
commodation of Homer's conceptions to. a basis of fact 
with which he was unacquainted, but simply a copy, if 
we can get it, of the map, which he constructed in his 
brain from the materials supplied by Phoenician dis- 
course or legend. And the proper mode of search must 
be, to take for our primary authority his own state- 
ments of distance, direction, and physical features ; and 
then, but only in subordination to this rule, to see 
where and how far they fit any portion of what actually 
exists ; moreover, whether they so correspond with it 
as it is situate in its proper place, or as he has arbi- 
trarily transplanted it to some other. 

There are fractions of border-land, between the Inner 
or home, and the outer or wholly foreign sphere, which 
receive somewhat of a mixed treatment. To this group 
Scherie belongs : and the land of the Lotos-eaters pos- 
sibly may be but another phase of Egypt. Epirus 
again, and the country of the Glactophagoi and other 
nations, over whom Zeus directs his view at the outset 
of the Thirteenth Iliad, 1 belong to this zone, as does 
Phoenicia, if not Cyprus. 



1 II. xiii. 3-6. 
31 



482 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Our data for constructing an Homeric map of the 
Outer Geography seems to be chiefly as follows : — 

1. The points of the horizon marked for morning 
and evening respectively, connect themselves with two 
of Homer's winds. His Zephuros is akin to zophos, 
and knephas, the darkness: 1 his Euros to e5s, 2 the 
morning, and perhaps to his euroeis, an epithet used 
by him four times only, and in each case to describe 
the Underworld. Sunrise and sunset, with him, verge, 
though not perhaps with uniform precision, to the 
south of East, and to the north of West respectively. 

2. And such are the directions, from which Zephuros 
and Euros blow. But it is plain, as Zephuros blows 
from Thrace upon the iEgean, 3 that his range also 
approximates to the north pole on the western side : 
and further, that, as Boreas blows from the same 
quarter, he takes up the next arc of the horizon, and 
may be denned as a north-north-east wind; a title 
which the same wind, as far as my memory serves me, 
still ^bears in the Adriatic. Again, Euros and Notos, 
the third and fourth of Homer's winds, are associated 
together as a pair, raising the iEgean from the South 
nearly as Boreas and Zephuros catch it from the North. 
The greater portion, however, of the arc covered by the 
southern pair is to the east of the Pole, by the north- 
ern pair to the west. It is not probable that Homer 
had names for winds from all points of the compass, 
or that he did more than mark inartificially the direc- 
tions from which the winds of his actual experience 
principally blew. Notos may probably be a South 



1 Buttinann, Lexil. in voc. Kelmvog. 

2 Liddell and Scott, in voc. 



3 II. ix. 4. 



THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOMER. 



483 



wind, blowing from near that pole on either side : 
Euros is between Notos and the east. 

3. Next to these, we have to mark Homer's meas- 
ures of sea distances. Of extended land distances 
he has no measures at all ; a separate proof of the very 
limited range of the land experience of the Greeks. 

(#) Homer measures the time of a voyage from 
Troas to Phthia ; and from Crete to Egypt. 1 The 
result of these measurements is, to give some ninety 
miles as a good average day's journey of a ship using 
sails or oars, under favorable circumstances. With 
peculiar good fortune, that distance might be exceeded. 

(b) In a floating or drift passage on the waves, we 
can trace Homer's idea of what was possible by the 
supposed transit of Odysseus from a point near Crete 
to the Thesprotoi. It appears to be about half the 
rate of a ship's motion, or two miles an hour. 

(c) The floating of a raft may probably be taken at 
a little more, or two and a half. 

Thus we should have ninety-six miles, forty-eight 
miles, and sixty miles a day as our results respectively. 

These are, of course, but rude measures, yet they 
are not unimportant aids in our inquiry. 

(d) The rate of a Scherian ship is described by com- 
parison with a bird's flight, or a four-horse chariot 
scouring the plain. 4 It would go,' says Alkinoos, ' to 
Eubcea (or perhaps to Euboea and back) in a day.' 
We cannot, I think, put it at less than thrice the speed 
of the ordinary ship. 

The key to the great contrast between the Outer 
Geography and the facts of nature lies in the belief 



i H. ix. 362. Od. xiv. 257. 



484 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



of Homer, that a great sea occupied the space, where 
we know the heart of the European Continent to lie. 
Proofs and indications of this belief are to be found, 
such as to place it beyond denial or even doubt. 

(a) For example, we find one of these in th« voyage 
of the Phaiakes to Eubcea, which was certainly not 
supposed to take place round the whole coast of the 
Greek Peninsula, for the Phaiakes are supposed to 
hang as strangers on the outer skirt of the Greek 
world, not to traverse all its chief waters. 1 It must 
therefore have been a passage by a supposed northern 
sea. 

(5) When Hermes travels from Olympos to the 
Island of Calypso, he passes over Pieria, and then 
sweeps down upon the sea. 2 That sea must therefore 
have been in the north or north-east. The journey of 
Here over Pieria to Emathia and Lemnos 3 shows the 
acquaintance of the Poet with the general direction of 
those countries. 

(tf) The Shades of the Suitors, on their way to the 
Underworld, take a northerly direction, pass the Leu- 
cadian rock, in a journey towards the stream of Ocean, 
and the gates of the Sun. 4 Can there be a clearer 
declaration than this that they were to pass into the 
east along the Adriatic — apparently avoiding the 
known land of Greece on their journey ? 

Next, Homer appears to have compounded into one 
group two sets of Phoenician reports concerning the 
entrance from without to the Thalassa or Medi- 
terranean : one of them referring to the Straits of 



i Od. vii. 19-26. 
3 II. xiv. 225-230. 



2 Od. v. 43-58. 
4 Od. xxiv. 11-14. 



THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOMER. 



485 



Messina, with their Scylla and Charybdis ; the other 
to the Bosphorus and itsPlanctai. It is also very 
easy to believe, that with each of these narrow passages 
he associated another strait beyond it at a distance 
of several hundred miles, namely the Straits of Gib- 
raltar with the first, and the Straits of Yenikale with 
the second : and the striking resemblance of these last 
to one another, in the cardinal point of presenting 
at all times an inward flowing current, would tend 
to favor the confusion. The Ocean was, in Homer's 
system, the feeder of the Sea : he tells us in the 
Odyssey distinctly enough of one sea-passage to the 
Ocean, but he nowhere glances at the existence of any 
second access. 

This Ocean mouth, to which he conducts Odysseus, 
is unequivocally placed in the East, near the island of 
Aiaia, and the rising Sun. To the left and North, lie 
the people of the Kimmerians hid in fog, for which the 
Black Sea is even now said to be remarkable. KirkS 
is the daughter of Aietes, to whose country Jason had 
sailed through the Bosphorus. And giving the dark- 
ness a place near the dawn is a proceeding necessary 
to complete the idea of morning. The mouth of the 
Underworld is farther southward, inasmuch as Odys- 
seus is carried to it by the Wind Boreas, up the Ocean- 
Stream. The whole of his voyage, up to this point, is 
accomplished without his being obliged to traverse any 
dangerous narrows. But, pursued by the vengeance 
of Poseidon, who rules the outer or Phoenician Tha- 
lassa, he eschews returning by the same open, length- 
ened, and menacing route. Kirk£ accordingly apprises 
him of a short passage, by which he may soon find 
himself once more within the margin of the Greek or 



486 JUVENTUS MUNDI. 

iEgean waters. This is the Bosphorus ; near which 
the Poet plants Thrinakie, an island evidently projected 
in his mind on the basis of ideas derived from Sicily, 
and with it the Scylla and Charybdis of the Straits of 
Messina. 

This transportation of western features to the East 
is further illustrated by the Homeric treatment of Atlas. 
For, associated though he be in general tradition with 
the coast of Africa, and the Straits of Gibraltar, he is 
witli Homer the Father of Calypso, whose island plainly 
lies in the northern and eastern waters, since it seems 
to be Boreas who brings Odysseus from thence to 
Ithaca. 

The general result of this blending is, that the sup- 
posed Ocean mouth in the Euxine gets the benefit of 
the open sea-route which really leads to the Straits of 
Gibraltar ; and the real Ocean mouth at Gibraltar has 
credit for being placed in a northern latitude and a 
distant eastern longitude ; while the Faro and the 
BdBpborus, in consequence of this identification, are 
brought near to one another: each group of reports 
thus throwing its own separate attributes into the com- 
mon stock. 

The Bosphorus must be considered not as belonging 
to the Greek world, but yet as fast linked to it, and 
therefore as a point fixed by practical experience, and 
not to be removed. And even if we could not give 
probable ground for Homer's having placed the Faro 
near it, the fact would still be undeniable from the 
evidence of the text, and must be recognized in any 
transcript of the Outer Geography which we may 
attempt. 

The island of Calypso, again, must be in the north : 



THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOMER. 



48T 



(a) From the direction taken, as we have seen, by- 
Hermes. 

(K) Because fire is kept burning there, which indi- 
cates a climate requiring it. Kirk& has none in her 
island. 1 

(c) Because it is the omphalos, 2 or central point 
of a vast sea, spreading on all sides, with which nothing 
to the east, west, or south of Greece corresponds 
either in nature, or in the ideas of Homer. 

(d) Because the meaning of her name, the Concealer, 
and the length of the voyage back to Scherie, indicate 
her dwelling as belonging to a region wholly untrav- 
elled and unknown to the Greeks. 

(e) Because Odysseus 3 is apparently carried to it 
by Notos. And the general rule of the Wanderings is, 
that southerly winds bear Odysseus away from home, 
while northerly ones carry him towards it. 

Again, the association of Calypso with the Eastern 
mythology prevents us from placing her in the North- 
west, where lies the country of the Laistrugones ; and 
keeps her in relation with the east rather than the 
west of North. 

The island of Aiaie is bound to an eastward position 
by the name and character of Kirke ; by its relation 
to Aietes, and thus to Jason, and his voyage ; by the 
names of Helios, the father of Calypso, and of her 
mother Perse, an appellation savoring, in Homer, of 
the far East, to which the Persians of that day be- 
longed ; 4 by its being the point of Sunrise ; and by the 
residence of Dawn. 

1 Od. v. 60 ; x. 210 seqq. 2 Od. i. 50. 

3 Od. xii. 426, 447. 

4 Rawlinson, Anc. Monarchies, vol. iv. p. 349. 



488 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



All particular conjecture respecting any position for 
these islands is, however, vague : the several points of 
the scheme of Homer in the Outer Geography were 
determined by relation to each other broadly conceived, 
and by directions generally taken, rather than by any 
attempt at exactitude even in mental measurement. 

With these data, I now proceed to note the several 
stages of the Yoyage of Odysseus. 

1. From Troy to the Kikones on the north coast of 
the iEgean ; in a region strictly belonging to the Inner 
Geography. 1 

2. From the Kikones, Boreas (N.N.E. wind) carries 
Odysseus to Cape Malea, prevents him from rounding 
it, and drives him out to sea, where nine days of bad or 
plaguy winds (olooi anemoi) bring him to the land 
of the Lotos-Eaters, which appears to be like an Egypt 
in a new dress. As five days 2 drive a ship from Crete 
to Egypt, we must suppose that nine imply some con- 
s/deraole westing, and place the Lotos-Eaters on the 
African coast along the Syrtis Major. We are now in 
the Outer Sphere. 3 

3. From the Lotophagoi to the Kuklopes, we have 
no direct guide afforded by the text, except that it was 
a voyage onward, and that the Kuklopes live on a main- 
land, 4 not an island. From this mainland they had, at 
an earlier date, displaced their neighbors the Phaiakes, 
who, being a nautical people, passed over and settled 
in Scherie. Therefore we are probably to place them 
in Iapugia, the heel of Italy, over against Scherie. 5 

4. From the land of the Kuklopes, perhaps called by 

1 Od. ix. 39. 2 Od. xiv. 253. 3 Od. ix. 67, 80-84. 

4 Od. vi. 4-8. 5 Od. ix. 105. 



THE GEOGRAPHY OF HOMER. 



489 



Homer Hupereie, 1 Odysseus proceeds to the island 
Alolie, 2 and Aiolos gives him a Zephyr (N..W. wind) 
which would carry him home to Ithaca. Therefore the 
island of Aiolos (whether related to Stromboli as its 
prototype or not) lies to the north and west of Ithaca, 
with a clear sea-passage between. 3 Then a tempest 
drives him back to Aiolie, after nine days of Zephuros, 
and when the ships were in full sight of Ithaca. 4 
Thus we have a very good measurement from the direct 
evidence of the text : and Aiolie lies at sea and at from 
eight hundred to a thousand miles from Ithaca, in a 
north-westerly direction. 

5. From Aiolie, Odysseus comes, in seven days of 
rowing, to Laistrugonie, the city of Lamos, evidently 
far north, as it is the land where one day runs into an- 
other. 5 We are now seventeen days from Ithaca in a 
direction north and west. There can be little doubt 
that the prototype of this place was supplied by a tra- 
dition brought from the north-western main. Tire very 
marked description of the harbor, and the epithet 
(aipu) applied to the city, correspond closely, I am 
told, with one or more of those on the south Devon- 
shire and south Cornish coasts. But the site in the 
open sea, and the description of the continuous day? 
might more properly be taken from the Faro Islands. 
The size of the people, especially of the women 6 , sug- 
gests a Scandinavian race ; the want of cultivation 7 a 
position in the far north, and with a climate suited for 
pasture, not for tillage. 

6. From Laistrugonie we pass, without indication, to 

1 Od. vi. 4. 2 Od. ix. 565 ; x. 1. 3 od. x. 25, 46. 

4 Od. x. 28, 54. 5 Od. x. 80-83. 6 Od. x. 113. 

1 Od. x. 98. 



490 



JUVENTUS MUNDI . 



Aiaie. 1 I have already shown that this island is abso- 
lutely fixed, according to the mind of Homer, in the 
East, as Aiolie is in the West. It cannot be in the re- 
mote North, because no fire is used. It is not very 
likely to lie to the south of East, because of the neigh- 
borhood of Kimmerian fog. This is a difficulty for 
Homer, since his Dawn ought to.be somewhat to the 
south of East. He tries (it may seem) to escape, like 
some of his Trojan heroes, in a fog ; for he declares 
that, on arriving here, Odysseus could make out noth- 
ing about his position relatively to the Dark and the 
Dawn, the Sunset and the Sunrise. 2 This difficulty of 
course cannot wholly be removed : but it rather bears 
upon latitudes, than on longitude or distance east- 
wards. I place Aiai£ at a spot near the Colchis of 
Aietes ; adding that we are by no means to assert pos- 
itively that the island lies to the northward of East, 
even though the balance of evidence may lie in that 
direction. 

From Aiaie, one day's favoring wind takes Odysseus 
to the Ocean-mouth, hard by the Kimmerian darkness. 3 
It is Boreas that carries him southward, or up the 
stream, it is hard to say which. 4 After landing, the 
party pursue the course of the shore, in the same di- 
rection, to the entrance of the Underworld ; we know 
not at what distance. Thence they return to Aiaie. 
No fresh indication is given. 

7. From Aiaie to the Island of the Sirens. No spe- 
cific indication is afforded us ; except that apparently 
the passage is a short one. We are now within the 
virtual limits of the eastern and southern Euxine. 5 



i Od. x. 133-135. 2 Od. x. 189-192. 

3 Od. xi. 1-19. 4 Od. x. 507. 

5 Od. xii. 149-154, 165-167 ; also 39, and xxiii. 326. 



THE GEOGRAPHY OP HOMER. 



491 



8. From the Sirens, by Scylla and Charybdis, leav- 
ing the (neighboring) Planctai aside, to Thrinakie. 
This evidently is also a short passage. 1 Odysseus is 
here detained by Notos (S.S.W.) chiefly, but also by 
Euros ; both of them blowing from the southern hemi- 
sphere. 

9. From Thrinakie, Notos having ceased to blow, he 
is able to pursue the homeward route. The ship found- 
ers in a violent gale from the North-west. 2 Notos car- 
ries him back in one night to Scylla and Charybdis, 
which he traverses in safety 3 after great peril ; and 
then, drifting on, apparently with the same wind, he 
reaches, on the tenth day, Ogugie, the Island of Ca- 
lypso, the quasi-central point of the great (northern) 
sea. 4 

10. From Ogugi& to Scherie ; never called an island, 
but called the land of the Phaiakes, which may be on 
account of its size, for the Poet appears to have con- 
sidered it as an island. 5 This is a raft voyage, and the 
eighteenth day brings him within view of Scherie. 
Then comes the storm, with a hurricane of all the 
winds. 6 The raft founders ; 7 and Odysseus drifts, with 
a wind (Boreas) sent by AtlienS, to Scherie, where he 
arrives on the third day. 8 

In this passage he is ordered to observe the stars, 
and to steer with Arctos looking over against, or oppo- 
site, his left ; 9 that is to say, on his right. The exact 
phrase used is not a common one in Homer, and it has 

1 Od. xii. 201, 261, 262 ; xi. 166, 167 ; xxiii. 327-329. 

2 Od. xii. 403. 3 od. xii. 424, 427-430, 442-446. . 
* Od. xii. 447, 448 ; xxiii. 333 ; i. 50. 5 Od. vi. 204. 

6 Od. v. 263, 278, 293, 331, 345. 1 Od. v. 370. 

8 Od. v. 382-398, • 9 Od. v. 277. 



492 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



usually been translated ' on his left.' If this were 
correct, the island of Calypso must lie in the north-west. 
This would not so well agree with the winds indicated, 
though not expressed ; namely, Boreas for the passage 
home, and Notos for the passage from the Bosphorus to 
Ogugie. Nor would it agree as well with the time 
allowed for reaching Ogugie from the Bosphorus. Be- 
sides, we have to keep in mind the fact, that all other 
associations draw Calypso eastward. 

11. From Scherie to Ithaca ; a passage of some six- 
teen or eighteen hours in the hawk-ship ; beginning 
early in the day, and ending before the next dawn. 1 

Allowing for the rapidity of the voyage, it is plain 
that Homer placed his Scherie farther north than the 
original Corfu, which may be eighty miles from Ithaca. 
Eighteen days of raft voyage, with an allowance for 
the distance of Scherie, when first seen, will place 
Ogugie at more than eleven hundred miles from Ithaca. 
Ten days of floatage from the Bosphorus will give five 
hundred miles, or thereabouts, from that point. We 
have already found that Laistrugoni£ is near seven- 
teen hundred miles from Ithaca. All these routes are 
over the open sea. Speaking generally, Homer gives to 
the voyage of Odysseus all the world he knows of, 
lying from South, round by West and North, and then 
far to the East of Greece ; except only what in terms 
of slight outline he gives to the tour of Menelaos, 
between the East and South. 2 The two routes diverge 
at the Malean promontory. 3 Perhaps it is because the 
real Phoenicia lies on the border of the Outer world, in 



i Od. xiii. 18, 78, 86, 93-95. 
8 Od. iii. 318. 



2 Od. iv. 80-85. 



THE GEOGRAPHY OP HOMER. 



493 



the south, that he has given us an idealized Phoenician 
people upon the border-line towards the north, and the 
name Scherie is possibly Suri£ (Syria), travestied for 
the ear, as the Phaiakes are the Phoinikes. 

The general arrangements of Homer show that he 
thought the Earth and Sea had a great extension north- 
wards, but give no idea of great distances in the longi- 
tudinal line, or from east to west. How far he carried 
it to the south, we have no means of judging. We 
know that the Shield of Achilles represented the form 
of the Earth, with the River Okeanos for its rim. 1 
Now a shield in general is sometimes compared with 
the moon by Homer ; 2 but he does not say the full moon : 
and the prevailing epithets for the shield would tend to 
show an oval form, or one adapted to cover the entire 
figure ; 3 the same form as that indicated in the formula 
of the Spartan mother for a soldier son : ' bring it, or be 
brought upon it.' The natural shape of the hide, of 
which the name is often applied to a shield, likewise 
seems to favor this belief. And such a form of the 
shield apparently agrees with the figure which the de- 
scriptions of the Outer Geography tend to give to the 
Earth, in conjunction with the representation of the 
Shield of Achilles. 

The noble conception of a great circumfluent River 
was probably founded on a combination of a double set 
of reports ; the one, of great currents setting into the 
Thalassa, or Mediterranean Sea, and seeming to feed 
it, such as those of Yenikal£, the Bosphorus, Gibraltar ; 
the other, of Outer Waters, such as the Caspian, the 
Persian Gulf, and probably the. Red Sea. 

i II. xviii. 608 ; II. xix. 374. 2 II. xix. 374. 

^ II. xi. 32 ; xv. 646 ; and xiii. 130. 



494 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



The name Kimmeria is derived by* some from the 
Arabic kahm, black; Maiotis from maneth, meaning 
death ; x and Tartarosis taken to be the reduplication 
of the tar in tarik, the Persian word for darkness. The 
seeming contradiction of perpetual light and perpetual 
darkness in the north is of course removed for us, who 
know that both reports are true, but for different seasons 
of the year. 

1 Welsford on the English Language, pp. 75, 76, 88. Bleek, Per- 
sian Vocab. (Grammar, p. 170). 



CHAPTER XIV. 



Plots, Characters, and Similes. 

Section I. The Plots of the Poems; especially of the 

Iliad. 

The works of Homer are not constructed upon 
speculative models. His is the fresco painting of 
poetry. He is a man singing to men, and to men 
immensely his inferiors. He is perhaps more under the 
conditions of the orator, than of the modern poet. He 
cannot store up or record his thought ; there is but one 
depository for it, upon the living tablets of the heart, 
and within its deep recesses. Hence, in both the Iliad 
and the Odyssey, we have that rush and exuberance of 
life, which result from the common action between the 
Bard and his hearers, the separate currents of whose 
existences seem to be thrown into one great volume, 
never exhausted, though gently slackened from' time 
to time to meet the conditions of our nature. 

He is also an artist, living by his art ; addressing 
himself by his genius to universal nature, but by his 
circumstances to his country, and to the several squares 
of that tessellated nation, each with its local patriotism 
and limited traditions, as well as with its portion in 
the common inheritance of Hellenism. 



496 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



Viewed in the light of considerations snch as these, 
the plot of the Odyssey is simple, without knots or 
breaks of texture, and generally well-devised if not 
uniformly sustained ; but that of the Iliad is, as far as 
I may presume to judge, in the main a consummate 
work of art. The mechanism is double throughout. 
But the train of action on Olympos never clashes with 
that in Troas, and nowhere impairs the free, natural, 
and thoroughly human character of that part of the 
business, which is in the hands of mortals. At the 
same time, it is so contrived as to assist the Poet in 
overcoming one of his greatest difficulties ; which was, 
to maintain a clear and ample martial superiority on 
the part of the Greek chieftains, and yet to give them 
in Troy a thoroughly worthy and sufficient object for 
their prowess. What in this respect was lacking in the 
Trojan leaders, has been supplied by the Theotechny, 
or divine movement of the Poem. 
» The most favorite topic of objectors to the plot of 

the Iliad has been the length of time during which 
Achilles is kept out of sight. From the Second to the 
Eighth Book inclusive, and again from the Twelfth to 
the Fifteenth, he does not appear upon the stage. 

Now it is by this withdrawal of Achilles that Homer 
obtains scope for his other heroes, who were dwarfed 
by the presence of that colossal figure. The moment 
he appears they become insignificant; they are almost 
invisible in the blaze of his light. ■ But, by means of his 
absence, Diomed, Ajax, Agamemnon, Idomeneus, and 
likewise Odysseus in the Doloneia, and Menelaos in the 
Seventeenth Book as well as in the Third, have each 
their opportunities of distinction. In this manner a 
double object is gained. First, satisfaction is given to 



PLOTS, CHARACTERS, AND SIMILES. 497 



the local sentiment of the parts of Greece, with which 
these heroes are severally connected. In the second 
place, by this series of personages, embodying the idea 
and practice of martial prowess as it was commonly 
understood, Homer constructs, as it were, a platform, 
on and from which he can build upwards the astonish- 
ing figure of his Achilles, for which the reader has been 
prepared by a propaideia, or preliminary course of great- 
ness, on the scale on which it commonly (as far as it is 
common at all) appears among men. 

But perhaps the most emphatic confutation of such 
objections is to be found in the total failure of all 
attempts to combine the ideas of the objectors into 
anything like one positive sense or view, or to improve 
the Iliad by the process of excision. While this nega- 
tive criticism treads its hopeless and dreary circle of 
doubt without progress or achievement, the Poem itself 
confirms and enlarges, from generation to generation, 
its hold upon civilized mankind ; and" the translations 
in which it is (of necessity so imperfectly) represented, 
but which carry it beyond the limited circle of Greek 
scholarship, multiply in this nineteenth century of ours, 
and in the very focus of its keenest activity, at a rate 
beyond all precedent. 

The main steps of the action of the Iliad seem to be 
these. Upon the Wrong perpetrated by Agamemnon 
arises the Wrath, and thereupon the Secession, of the 
prime hero, in whose marvellous character the Greek 
nationality is to find its supreme satisfaction. And 
this character, not the fate of Troy, is the true central 
thread of the great epic. On the absence of Achilles, 
the Greeks, after a panic and recovery, decide upon 
doing as well as they can without him. Though their 

32 



498 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



superior prowess is fully maintained, they are losers on 
the whole ; and they seek the aid of a rampart, which 
previously they had disdained. Here is the first marked 
triumph of the Wrath. Driven back upon their works, 
they are themselves threatened with a siege. The in- 
firm spirit of Agamemnon gives way, and he a second 
time utters counsels of flight, to which the chivalrous 
spirit of the other chiefs will not submit. A mission 
to the tent of Achilles is substituted, offering splendid 
gifts and the maid Briseis ; a reparation morally imper- 
fect, for there is no confession of the wrong. To the 
inflamed and inexorable spirit o*f Achilles they afford 
matter for fresh exasperation, and the Envoys return 
baffled in their aim. Here is the second triumph of 
the Wrath. Not till the ships are about to burn, will 
he entertain the thought to interfere. 

The Greeks fight again ; and, a second time, with 
martial superiority, yet with an unfavorable issue. The 
rampart is broken by the brave Sarpedon, a chief be it 
remarked of Greek associations, and apparently the 
best warrior fighting on the side of Troy. Fire reaches 
the fleet. But Achilles does not go forth. In his tow- 
ering pride, he will even now only send Patroclos, a 
semblance of himself; and this, too, with the vindictive 
wish that they two, all else having perished, may alone 
dash down the sacred battlements of Troy. 1 

This, the third great triumph of the Wrath, seems 
also to mark the point of its overflow into excess ; and 
the moral 2 order must avenge itself, in the divine 
decrees, and through the persons of men. By divine 

1 II. xvi. 97-100. 

2 See a fuller discussion on the Plots of the two Poems in Studies 
on Homer, vol. iii. Aoidos, Sect.- 5. 



PLOTS, CHARACTERS, AND SIMILES. 499 

intervention, after acts of might unsurpassed by the 
other chiefs, Patroclos is slain, and Achilles receives a 
punishment, in recesses of his nature more profound 
even than those penetrated and possessed by the Wrath ; 
those recesses, wherein dwelt his intense affection for 
his friend. That which was to have been the last tri- 
umph of his wounded pride, namely, that not he but 
his deputy should repel the attack which all the other 
chiefs had failed to baffle, now becomes the cause of an 
agony so intense, as by far to surpass, both in duration 
and in intensity, the emotions he had suffered from 
anger. 

The remainder of the fiery current, thus diverted 
from the Greeks, he turns upon the Trojans. When 
he goes forth as a warrior, we seem to feel as if we had 
* seen or heard of no warriors before. The King repents, 
and makes restitution. Hector is slain. The Greeks 
have been punished for the wrong which they did, or 
allowed. Achilles has been punished for allowing in- 
dignation to degenerate into revenge. The mutilation 
and dishonoring of the body of his slain antagonist 
now became to him a second idol, stirring the great 
deep of his passions, and bewildering his mind. Thus, 
in paying off his old debt to the eternal laws, he has 
already contracted a new one. Again, then, his proud 
will must be taught to bow. Hence, as Mr. Penn has 
well shown, 1 the necessity of the Twenty-fourth Book, 
with its beautiful machinery. 

On the other side, the death of Hector opens the 
way for the retribution due to the great guilt of Troy. 
The recovery of his remains is a tribute to his personal 

1 Primary Argument of the Iliad, pp. 241-273. 



500 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



piety ; and, after the fierce excitement of the action of 
the Poem, sheds a softened light upon its close. If the 
plot of the Iliad is to be condemned, where is the epic 
that can claim either admiration or acquittal ? 

Section II. Some Characters 1 of the Poems. 
1. Achilles. 

The character of Achilles, as I view it, differs from 
that of all other heroes of poetry and romance in these 
respects : it is more intense ; it is more colossal in 
i scale ; it ranges over a wider compass, from the bor- 
ders of savagery to the most tender emotions and the 
most delicate refinements. Yet all its parts are so 
accurately graduated, and so nicely interwoven, that 
the whole tissue is perfectly consistent with itself. 

The self-government of such a character is indeed 
very partial. But any degree of self-government is a 
wonder, when we consider over what volcanic forces it 
is exercised. It is a constantly recurring effort at rule 
over a constantly recurring rebellion ; and there is a 
noble contrast between the strain put upon his strength, 
in order to suppress his own passion, and the masterful 
ease with which he prostrates all his enemies in the 
field. The command, always in danger, is never wholly 
lost. It is commonly re-established by a supreme and 
desperate struggle ; and sometimes, as in the first As- 
sembly after the intervention of Athene^ 2 we see the 

1 The reader should, on the Greek characters of Homer, consult 
Col. Mure's History of Greek Literature, vol. i. 

2 II. i. 219-346. 



PLOTS, CHARACTERS, AND SIMILES. 501 

tide of passion flowing to a point at which it resembles 
a horse that has gained its utmost speed, yet remains 
under the full control of its rider. 

Ferocity is an element in his character, but is not 
its base. It is always grounded in, and springing 
from, some deeper sentiment, of which it is the mani- 
festation. His ferocity towards the Greeks grows out 
of the intensity of his indignation at the foul wrong 
done, with every heightening circumstance of outward 
insult, not merely to him, but in his person to every 
principle of honor, right, and justice, in the matter of 
Briseis ; as well as to the real attachment he felt for 
her. His ferocity towards Hector is the counterpart 
and recoil of the intensity of his passionate love for 
the dead Patroclos. 

Magnitude, grandeur, majesty, form the framework 
on which Homer has projected the character of Achilles. 
And these are in their truest forms ; those forms which 
contract to touch the smaller, as they expand to grasp 
the greater things. The scope of this character is like 
the sweep of an organ over the whole gamut, from the 
lowest bass to the highest treble, with all its diversities 
of tone and force as well as pitch. From the fury of 
the first Assembly, he calms down to receive with 
courtesy the pursuivants who demand Briseis. From 
the gentle pleasure of the lyre, he kindles into the 
stern excitement of the magnificent Debate of the 
Ninth Book. From his terrible vengeance against the 
torn limbs of Hector he melts into tears, at the view 
and the discourse of Priam. The sea, that home of 
marvels, presents no wider, no grander contrasts, nor 
offers us an image more perfect according to its kind 
in each of its varying moods. Foils, too, are employed 



502 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



with skill to exalt the hero. The half-animated bulk 
and strength of Ajax (who was also greatly beautiful) 1 
exhibit to us the mere clay of Achilles, without the 
vivifying fire. The beauty of Nireus, 2 wedded to 
effeminacy, sets off the transcendent, and yet manful 
and heroic, beauty of Achilles ; and the very orna- 
ments of gold, which in Nastes the Carian 3 only sug- 
gest Asiatic luxury and relaxation, when they are borne 
on the person of the great Achaian hero, seem but a 
new form of tribute to his glorious manhood. 



The high quality of Homer's portraitures is in no 
way better apprehended, than by the clearness of the 
distinctions between the personages who most approxi- 
mate. Odysseus receives in the Odyssey a develop- 
ment, which raises him, as a protagonist, almost to the 
level of Achilles ; but in the Iliad, while he is sepa- 
rated from Nestor by some twenty years of juniority, 
these two characters bear a resemblance which some 
might mistake for repetition. But, in truth, they are 
radically distinct, both in speech and action. Nestor's 
eloquence is gentle and flowing, with a decided flavor 
of egotism and of garrulity. That of Odysseus is mas- 
culine and compressed : when he refers to himself, it 
is only to enhance his own obligation, in a great 
crisis, to act as it demands ; 4 and he never wastes a 
word. The sagacity of Nestor is addressed to ques- 
tions where calm judgment, and the weight given by 
age and great experience, are alone required ; the 



2. Odysseus. 



i Od. xi. 469. 
3 II. ii. 872. 



2 II. ii. 671. 

4 II. ii. 259-264. 



PLOTS, CHARACTERS, AND SIMILES. 503 

interpositions of Odysseus are in cases, where vehe- 
ment impulses and strong passions are to be encoun- 
tered, and where the presence of mind, which can face 
a crisis, is indispensable. He checks and recalls the 
whole army from its tumultuous rush homewards ; 
he undertakes the burden of the remonstrance and peti- 
tion to Achilles. But the interposition of Nestor, in the 
great Debate of the First Book, is only employed by 
the Poet when the matter has already, by the direct 
interposition of AthenS, been reduced to an issue of 
words alone. To untie a knot is the office of Nestor ; 
to stem a torrent, or scale a frowning barrier, is the 
business of Odysseus. Again, and more generally, 
Nestor heals differences by a soothing interposition, 
and offers suggestions : Odysseus constructs wider 
plans, but the specialty of his case is this, that he 
executes what he designs. He has touched that period 
of life when the faculties of the mind are fully 
ripened, and the bodily powers are consolidated, but 
not yet decayed. Nestor belongs to one more ad- 
vanced ; when the mind, without acquiring vigor, in 
the main retains it, but when the province of bodily 
action is narrowed by comparative infirmity, and the 
person becomes as it were a head without a hand, a 
dependent instead of a self-subsistent organism. 

The character of Odysseus, as a whole, is admirably 
balanced between daring and prudence, both of which 
are carried in him to the highest degree. The picture 
is s however diversified by two occasions, on each of 
which he records his having failed in his usual cir- 
cumspection. On visiting the cave of Poluphemos, his 
companions advise him to be content with carrying 
off a supply of cheese, and retiring ; but he determines 



504 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



to remain and see the monster. 1 And after the escape 
from the cave and the re-embarkation, while his men 
try to keep him quiet, he persists in exasperating the 
Cyclops with his stinging addresses. 2 In both these 
cases we may discern a fault ; yet not a fault alone, 
but the irresistible aspiration of genius to measure it- 
self with danger, and to pierce boldly into the unknown. 

Odysseus is represented as somewhat wanting in one 
element of the beauty of the Homeric hero ; namely, 
amplitude of stature. Menelaos is taller by the head 
and shoulders ; 3 and the Cyclops despise him for his 
deficiency in height. 4 But that his frame was other- 
wise well developed and powerful is manifest, as he 
was more majestic than Menelaos when they sate 
down; 5 and also from his wrestling on equal terms 
with the huge Ajax, 6 and from his extraordinary feats 
of strength and endurance in the Odyssey. But it is 
observable that, amidst the long list of epithets be- 
stowed upon him, none have reference to personal 
beauty, except when, in Scherie, Athene had endowed 
him with it in a manner which seems to have gone 
much beyond mere restoration from his weather-beaten 
aspect. 7 He seems to speak of himself, even among 
the Phaiakes, as not possessed of this special gift equally 
with them. 8 On the other hand, we ought perhaps to 
set the attachment of Calypso as tending in the opposite 
direction ; and when he returns to Ithaca, Athene* dis- 
guises him by wrinkling his fair flesh, and by spoiling 
his hair, now auburn, but elsewhere hyacinthine. 9 

i Od. ix. 224. 2 od. ix. 492-502. 3 n. iii. 210. 

4 Od. ix. 515. 5 ii. in. 211. 6 II. xxiii. 709 seqq. 

7 Od. vi. 227-235. 8 Od. viii. 166-175. 
Od vi 231 ; xiii. 399. 



PLOTS, CHARACTERS, AND SIMILES. 505 



His age, too, is of course to be taken into account. 
Perhaps it is on this ground that Homer may have 
meant to ascribe to him majesty, rather than simple 
beauty, of countenance. 

Although a prudence ever wakeful, and sometimes 
leaning towards craft, is the most commonly noticed 
characteristic of Odysseus, and became in after ages 
the key-note of the character, it is in Homer only one 
of several features highly distinctive, by means of which 
the Poet has raised this extraordinary conception to 
something very near a parity of rank with his Achilles. 
Though he does not compete with the son of Peleus in 
his grand prerogatives, in each one of them he is left 
second to no other hero. He wrestles with Ajax in 
the Twenty-third Iliad, and beats him in the contest 
for the Arms of Achilles, thereby establishing for him- 
self the second place among the Greek chieftains. The 
depth of his passion, and the power of his eloquence, as 
they are exhibited in the encounter with Eurualos, if 
they are still behind Achilles in each point, are before 
those of every other Greek. But by way of compensation 
for their being only second, Homer has awarded to him 
a many-sidedness, such as is possessed by no other 
hero. He is a master not only in war, but in govern- 
ment, and in every industrial pursuit ; and the sole 
approach that we find in the Poems to anything like 
Fine Art from the hand of a Greek, is in the bed 1 which 
he had wrought. There is yet another capacity in which 
Homer has assigned him a clear pre-eminence ; the ca- 
pacity of father and husband, of a model of the domestic 
affections. After an absence of near twenty years 



l Od. xxiii. 195-201. 



506 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



he is still yearning for the day of escape from the arms 
of a goddess, that he may return to his wife and child ; 
, and the very smoke of Ithaca would be dear to his 
eyes. 1 Of the Odyssey this is the theme. But the 
Iliad, too, sustains by its slighter indications the sister 
poem ; for he alone among the Greek chieftains desires 
to be known as the father of his son ; and touchingly 
sets forth his sense of the hardship of being detained, 
even but a single month, away from a wife. 2 

The faculty of tears is generally ascribed to the 
Greek chiefs and soldiery ; and the Poet did not think 
their susceptibility derogated from their manhood. But 
even here Odysseus has a specialty. This man of iron 
nerve and soul, who within the Horse's ribs saved the 
lives of his comrades by sternly compelling silence ; who 
in the cave of Poluphemos executed his vengeance, and 
then clung beneath the great ram as the blinded monster 
felt its back ; and who again gave place to a profound 
and inexorable wrath, not only against the Suitors, but 
even against their helpless and miserable minions ; 
even this same man it is, who weeps at the recognition 
given of his return by the dog Argos in his twentieth 
year. 3 

3. Agamemnon. 

The Agamemnon of Homer is described as a good 
king and a stout warrior. He shows a natural affection 
to his brother, and is not deficient in the courtesy 
which, then as now, marked his race ; but he is not in 
other respects an amiable, nor a decidedly estimable 
man : and Homer seems to take care that we shall not 



i Od. i. 58. 



2 II. ii. 260, 292. 



3 Od. xvii. 304. 



PLOTS, CHARACTERS, AND SIMILES. 



507 



love him. His besetting sin is personal ; it is an 
avarice, which seems to make him both cruel in war, 
with a view to spoil, and niggardly in general conduct. 
His marked virtue is official ; he has a profound sense 
of responsibility to the army. To this responsibility he 
greatly defers ; and though avarice, appetite, and pride, 
were alike gratified in the acquisition of Chryseis, he 
yields her up. 1 And a circumstance, disclosed later in 
the Poem, shows us that, doubtless from motives of 
policy, he did not assume an absolute possession of the 
woman he had taken from Achilles. Yet he has neither 
the fire of genius, nor any gift of profound, political 
sagacity. On the contrary, while, like so many poli- 
ticians, he is a practitioner in finesse, he contrives by 
it to outwit himself. This seems to be, in part at least, 
the explanation of the unhappy device in the Second 
Iliad, where he seeks to provoke the people to an attack 
on Troy, by counselling them to go home forthwith ; 2 
which they would have done, to his utter confusion, 
unless the error had been retrieved by Odysseus. 

It is a remarkable illustration of the power of the 
Hellenic anthropomorphism, that the characters of 
the Olympian and the Pelopid chief have some close 
resemblances. Zeus, wielding the highest power, is 
strong in the sense of responsibility, while inferior in 
intellect to some members of the group around him ; 
and he partially redeems the meaner elements of his 
character by a strong touch of natural affection for 
his son Sarpedon, just as that of Agamemnon is in a 
degree ennobled by his fraternal love for Menelaos. 3 
He may be in part the reflection of a human prototype. 



i II. i. 117. 2 ii. ii. 139-145. 3 ii. i v . 148 ; v ii. 107. 



508 



JUVENTUS MUNDI . 



Whether he be or not, it is in great part true that 
Zeus is the Agamemnon of Olympos, and Agamemnon 
the Zeus of Greece. 

4. Diomed and Ajax. 

In the same manner the characters of Ajax and 
Diomed, allied by resemblances in action, are pro- 
foundly and broadly distinguished. Each is superlative 
in its degree ; but while Diomed is gallant, Ajax is 
sturdy. Diomed is impassioned, Ajax is calm ; Diomed 
is rapid, Ajax is slow. Diomed can brag ; Ajax moves 
in a simple unquestioning self-reliance. Diomed is not 
above taking a circuitous advantage, as we find when, in 
the act of fulfilling the duties of guestship, he makes an 
extraordinarily profitable exchange with G-laucos : Ajax 
ever goes direct to his point. With a fine discernment, 
the Poet selects Ajax and Odysseus as the envoys to 
Achilles, in the Ninth Book, to attempt a conciliation. 
The favorable prepossessions of the great warrior are 
commanded by his sympathy with the powerful intellect 
of the one, and the straightforward simplicity of the 
other. A certain vein of craft and of talk in Diomed 
carried him away from the type of the first without 
giving him the weighty attractions of the second. 
And it may also be observed that, although Achilles 
is in truth incomparable, yet the combination of in- 
tellect and spirit with activity and rapid force in 
Diomed make him the one chieftain of the Iliad, who, if 
any, would be placed in a direct competition with the 
hero of heroes. Hence probably there was a latent 
estrangement. And hence, probably, Achilles selects 
Diomed for the chief subject of the matchless passage 



PLOTS, CHARACTERS, AND SIMILES. 509 

in which, gloating over the miscarriages of the Greeks, 
he combines bitter taunt with fiery exultation. 1 

Diomed, indeed, possesses every quality necessary to 
make up a complete Achaian hero. Acute, prompt, 
intelligent, decided in mind, daring, constant and re- 
solved in spirit, active, strong, and seemingly resistless 
in strength of body, he is more than able to cope with 
the brute strength of the god Ares. Of any other 
poem he might have been the model man. But even 
the extraordinary composition of his gifts is artfully 
employed by Homer with a view to the greater glory 
of that one character, which, in all qualities and all pro- 
portions of intellect and soul and body, without devi- 
ating from true humanity, is nevertheless colossal. 

5. Helen. 

The Helen of the Homeric Poems has been conceived 
by the Poet, himself of peculiar delicacy, with great 
truth of nature, and evidently with no intention to 
deprive her of a share in the sympathy of his hearers. 
He has made her a woman, not cast in the mould of 
martyrs or of saints, nor elevated in her moral ideas to 
a capacity of comprehension, and of endurance, beyond 
her age ; but yet endowed with much tenderness of 
feeling, with the highest grace and refinement, and with 
a deep and peculiar sense of shame for the offence into 
which she has been forced or tempted, and from the 
consequences of which she is unable to escape. 

In order justly to appreciate the character of the 
Homeric Helen, we must begin by casting aside, if we 
can, all which later times have added, and which poets 



i II. xvi. 74-78. 



510 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



more widely familiar than Homer have conveyed into the 
modern mind. That she was a willing partner in the 
crime of Paris at its inception, we are not informed by 
the Poems ; in which, on the contrary, Paris describes 
himself as having carried her off by violence. 1 We 
only know that she acquiesced in the consequences of it, 
by which she became his mate through a series of years, 
and by which also, on his death, like other widows, she 
was apparently transferred to another husband, his 
brother Deiphobos. 2 In this no general baseness or 
depravity of character is implied, but only the absence 
of a power of resistance, which would have exceeded that 
of Penelope, and would have been almost preterhuman 
at a period, when the condition of a woman withdrawn 
from the regular family order was one of great, nay 
total, helplessness. 

After the fall of Troy, Helen resumes her place in 
the palace of Menelaos, as his Queen. The subdued 
tone of her character, and the absence of self-assertion 
in her, are still observable ; but by her husband, and by 
all around them, she is treated with the same senti- 
ments, as if nothing had happened to break the original 
tenor of her married life. Indeed we find in the 
Odyssey a passage, which seems to indicate a remark- 
able tenderness on the part of Menelaos, in connection 
with the most questionable act recorded of the conduct 
of Helen during the war. When the Greeks were 
inclosed within the frame of the Horse, the Trojans, 
suspecting the ambush, brought her down to the spot, 
and she imitated the voices of the wives of the chief- 
tains, in the hope that they, if there, would reply. This 



i II. iii. 443-444. 



2 Od. iv. 276. 



PLOTS, CHARACTERS, AND SIMILES. 511 

act, done against the Greeks, savors of that slightness 
of character, which seems to be represented as the 
source of her great error. But Menelaos, when he 
mentions the subject, shifts the blame from her. 
i Thither,' he says, ' thou earnest ; but no doubt it 
was some deity, favorable to Troy, that prompted 
thee.' 1 

Helen was the object of much reproach in Troy ; 
not, however, from the mild Priam, 2 nor from the 
virtuous Hector, 3 but from Hecuba, or from the priuces 
and princesses. This is amply to be accounted for, from 
their natural sense of the suffering which by her means 
had been brought upon their family and country, without 
presuming unfavorably of her beyond what has been 
already stated. But it could hardly have been the 
general rule ; for when her sister-in-law Laodike sum- 
mons her to the Wall in the Third Iliad, she addresses 
her by the title of ' dear bride.' 4 

Among the Greeks of the War, she is never made the 
subject of reproach. In one verse of the Iliad, Achilles 
speaks of her as that dreadful Helen. But this is in the 
agony of his mind : and in his conference with the 
Envoys, where it would greatly have enhanced the force 
of his argument if he could have represented her as 
worthless, he does nothing of the kind. 5 Penelop& 
•says of her, that the deity impelled her to do an evil 
deed. 6 But in the context of this very passage, she 
speaks of Helen simply as deluded, without any malice 
prepense, and uses the deplorable result to justify her 
own extraordinary circumspection in the matter of the 



1 Od. iv. 274-279. 2 II. xxiv. 770. 3 n. xxiv . 771. 

4 II. iii. 130. 5 11. i x . 337. 6 od. xxiii. 222. 



512 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



recognition of Odysseus. Compare this with the words 
in which the Poet describes the sin of Clytemnestra, 
4 To his home Aigisthos led her, as willing as him- 
self.' 1 

In truth, Homer awards to Helen, when in his own 
person he speaks of her, an honorable, not a dishonor- 
able treatment. The epithets attached to her name 
are chiefly descriptive of beauty and birth ; but they 
are never colored with any tint of blame. And when 
in the Odyssey he compares her to his Artemis, 2 we see 
on the positive side that favorable bias of his mind, 
of which we may recognize the negative side of the fact 
that he never once compares her to Aphrodite. In 
truth, the only censures of her that we read in the 
Poems, are those pronounced by herself. 

The scene between her and Aphrodite in the Third 
Iliad exhibits the highest aspect of her character. The 
goddess endeavors to excite her passions, by a glowing 
description of Paris in his beauty and his splendid 
garments, and desires her to repair to him. Struck at 
first with fear when she perceives who it is that is 
addressing her, she then kindles into indignation, and 
makes a bitter and stinging reply ; reproaches Aphro- 
dite for interfering to prevent Menelaos from taking her 
home, and bids her assume to herself the odious char- 
acter she was seeking to force on another, who had too. 
long borne it. It is only under violent threats, that 
she at length and with shame complies ; and, on ar- 
riving in the presence of Paris, she addresses him in 
terms of scorn and aversion. 3 

Upon the whole, I think that no one, forming his 



i Od. iii. 272. 



2 Od. iv. 122. 



3 II. iii. 390-436. 



PLOTS, CHARACTERS, AND SIMILES. 513 

estimate of Helen from Homer only, could fall into the 
gross error of looking upon her as a type of depraved 
character. From the odious Helen 1 of the Second 
JEneid she is immeasurably apart. Her beauty, grace, 
refinement, are not contaminated by' vicious appetites ; 
they are only not sustained by an heroic, almost a 
superhuman, firmness. Her fall once incurred, she 
finds herself bound by the iron chain of circumstance, 
from which she can obtain no extrication. But to the 
world, beneath whose standard of morality she has 
sunk, she makes at least this reparation, that the sharp 
condemnation of herself is ever in her mouth, and that 
she does not seek to throw off the burden of her shame 
on her more guilty partner. Nay, more than this ; her 
self-abasing and self-renouncing humility come nearer, 
perhaps, than any other heathen example, to the type 
of Christian penitence. 

6. Hector. 

The character of the Homeric Hector has been so 
exaggerated, and so defaced, by the later tradition, that 
it has lost every distinctive feature of the original, and 
has come to stand as a symbol of the highest bravery 
and chivalry. But neither bravery nor chivalry are, in 
a proper sense, distinctive features of the Homeric 
Hector. 

In the original portraiture itself, which is perfectly 
simple and intelligible, there is nothing to account for 
this change. Hector, in the Iliad, is a person of warm 
domestic affections, of upright purpose, of feeble will, 
of considerable, but not first-rate, fighting force ; with 



i Mn. ii. 567-587. 
33 



514 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



all the convictions of a good citizen, though without 
the light of imagination or the fire of enthusiasm. 
He seems to be born in a family of lower tone, and 
weaker fibre, than his own ; hence upon him is laid 
the whole burden of war and government in a terrible 
crisis, and his responsibilities are beyond his powers. 
Hence, probably, come the discords of his character ; 
between boastfulness, feebleness, and even shabbiness 
on one side, and fundamental rectitude, worth, and 
attachment to virtue on another. The contrast seems 
to result from an overstrain. And hence it may be 
that, though much looked up to in the Poems by his 
own family, he does not seem to enjoy the confidence 
or respect either of the self-centred iEneas, or of the 
circumspect Poludamas, 1 or even of the gallant and 
good Sarpedon. 2 

It may be truly said, that Hector is the most incon- 
sistent character in the Iliad. No man is braver than 
he is at times : on the other hand, no man shows more 
palpable signs of cowardice. No man is more rash ; 
yet none has a deeper presentiment of the future. 
No man is so improvident, it might almost be said so 
insolent, in repelling wise counsel tendered to him ; 
and yet none shows more unequivocal signs of personal 
humility. But the faults in his character, though 
numerous and glaring, do not form its main tissue. 
They are flaws in a delineation essentially good, and 
occasionally noble. No act of cruelty or bad faith 
or violence, of greed or lust or selfishness, associates 
itself with his character ; the stream of his thought is 
pure ; the love he has for his country, his parents, his 



i II. xii. 211 ; xiii. 726. 



2 II. v. 472 seqq. 



PLOTS, CHARACTERS, AND SIMILES. 515 

wife, his child, overflows even in a protective care for 
Helen. 1 In the measure open to his day and people, 
he is one who fears God, and regards man ; and per- 
haps the total absence of vice, as it is contradistin- 
guished from infirmity, in his character, co-operated 
with other causes in bringing about his adoption in the 
Christian literature of the middle ages, as the model, 
for the olden time, of the heroic man. 

But the very inconsistency of Hector affords a marked 
testimony to the skill of the Poet. Had he been con- 
sistently great, he would have been a real rival to those 
prime Achaian chieftains, to whom Homer sought to 
secure an undisputed supremacy of admiration. Had 
he been consistently mean and small, he would have 
been a foe so unworthy, that no honor could redound 
to them from overcoming him. One of these dangers 
he has avoided by the flaws in the character of Hector ; 
the other by his virtues and his merits. It is not easy 
to see by what other means he could effectually have 
'attained the ends of his art. And he has further con- 
trived, that the virtues of Hector shall be mainly of a 
stamp, in which the Achaian chieftains shall not be 
tempted to compete with him ; the affectionate sorrow 
of his anticipations of the future, the stern rebuke of 
an unworthy brother, the dignified endurance of mis- 
fortune, and that form of resigned heroism, which can 
only be exhibited in the extremity of disaster. 



i II. xxiv. 767-772. 



516 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



7. Paris. 

The character of Paris is as worthy, as any other in 
the Poems, of the powerful hand and just judgment of 
Homer. It is neither on the one hand too slightly, nor 
on the other too elaborately, drawn ; the touches are 
just such and so many, as his poetic purpose seemed 
on the one hand to demand, and on the other to admit. 
Paris is not indeed the gentleman, but he is the fine 
gentleman, and the pattern voluptuary, of the heroic 
ages ; and all his successors in these capacities may 
well be wished joy of their illustrious prototype. The 
redeeming, or at least relieving, point in his character, 
is one which would condemn any personage of higher 
intellectual or moral pretensions ; it is a total want of 
earnestness, the unbroken sway of levity and of indif- 
ference to all serious and manly considerations. He 
completely fulfils the idea of the poco-curante^ except as 
to the display of his personal beauty, the enjoyment of 
luxury, and the resort to sensuality as the best refuge, 
from pain and care. He is not a monster, for he is 
neither savage nor revengeful ; but still further is he 
from being one of Homer's heroes, for he has neither 
honor, courage, eloquence, thought, nor prudence. 
That he bears the reproaches of Hector without irri- 
tation, is due to .that same moral apathy, and that nar- 
rowness of intelligence, which makes him insensible to 
those he receives from Helen. No man can seriously 
resent what he does not really feel. He is wholly des- 
titute even of the delicacy and refinement, which 
soften many of the features of vice ; and the sen- 
suality he shows in the Third Book 1 partakes largely 

i II. iii. 437-448. 



/ 



PLOTS, CHARACTERS, AND SIMILES. 517 



of that brutal character which marks the lusts of 
Jupiter. No wise, no generous word ever passes from 
his lips. On one subject only he is determined enough ; 
it is, that he will not give up the woman whom he well 
knows to be without attachment to him, 1 and whom he 
keeps not as the object of his affections, but merely as 
the instrument of his pleasures. One solicitude only 
he cherishes : it is to decorate his person, to exhibit his 
beauty, to brighten with care the arms that he would 
fain parade, but has not the courage to employ against 
the warriors of Greece. 

Paris, though effeminate and apathetic, is not gentle, 
either to his wife or his enemies ; and, when he has 
wounded Diomed, he wishes the shot had been a fatal 
one. The reply of Diomed cuts deeper than any arrow 
when he addresses him as 

' Bowman ! ribald ! well-frizzled girl-hunter ! ' 2 

Again, the Poet tells us, as if by accident, that when, 
after the battle with Menelaos, he could not be found, 
it was not because the Trojans were unwilling to give 
him up, for they hated him with the hatred which men 
feel to dark Death. 3 And again we learn, how he uses 
bribery to keep his ground in the Assembly ; how he 
refuses to recognize even his own military inferiority, 
but lamely accounts for the success of Menelaos by 
saying that all men have their turn ; 4 and how he 
causes shame to his own countrymen, and exultation 
to the Greeks, when they contrast the pretensions of 
his splendid appearance with his miserable perform- 
ance in the field. 5 



i II. iii. 428. 
4 II. vi. 339. 



2 II. xi. 385. 
5 II. iii. 43, 51. 



3 II. iii. 454. 



518 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



The immediate transition, in the Third Book, from 
the field of battle, where he was disgraced, to the bed 
of luxury, is admirably suited to impress upon the 
mind, by the strong contrast, the real character of 
Paris. Nor let it be thought, that Homer has gratui- 
tously forced upon us the scene between him and his 
reluctant partner. It was just that he should mark 
as a bad man him who had sinned grossly, selfishly, 
and fatally, alike against Greece and his own family 
and country. This impression would not have been 
consistent and thorough in all its parts, if we had been 
even allowed to suppose that, as a refined, affectionate, 
and tender companion, he made such amends to Helen, 
as the case permitted, for the wrong done her in his 
hot and heady youth. Such a supposition might ex- 
cusably have been entertained, and it would have bee\i 
supported by the very feebleness of the character of 
Paris, and by his part in the war, had Homer been 
silent upon the subject. He, therefore, though with 
cautious hand, lifts the veil so far as to show us that, 
in our variously compounded nature, animal desire 
can use up and absorb the strength which ought to 
nerve our higher faculties, and that, as none are more 
cruel than the timid, so none are more coarse than the 
effeminate. 



Section III. The Similes of the Poems. 

The detailed similes of the Iliad are about 194 in 
number ; besides near sixty comparisons without any 
detail or varied ornament. 

They are very unequally distributed. The First 
Book has none ; the Sixth only one. In both these 



PLOTS, CHARACTERS, AND SIMILES. 



519 



the action is of highly sustained and varied interest. 
On the other hand, the Books occupied exclusively 
with battle are largely embellished with them. The 
Fifteenth has sixteen similes, the Sixteenth has 
eighteen, and the Seventeenth has nineteen. In the 
Second there are thirteen, all of them intended to set 
off the gatherings and array of the Army. 

In the Odyssey, the greater or detailed similes be- 
come very much fewer. They are only forty-one ; and 
this not only before the arrival in Ithaca, where the 
action is highly varied, and the movement quick ; but 
also in the latter half of the Poem, after the arrival of 
Odysseus in Ithaca, when it is more relaxed : since 
the lower tone of the diction and of the subject does 
not call for, or perhaps even admit, this kind of gor- 
geous ornament ; perhaps also, according to a very 
natural and reasonable supposition, because these 
books were composed in the declining years of Homer, 
as they certainly indicate, with some noble and brilliant 
exceptions, a lower standard of power. 

The character, too, of the greater similes in the 
Odyssey entirely changes. The lion appears, but four 
times, 1 the vulture once, 2 war never, storm never. In- 
dustry, domestic life, the phenomena of outward nature 
when she is tranquil, now supply the materials to the 
hand of the Poet. 

The similes of the Odyssey, then, have the same 
harmonious relation to the Poem they embellish, as we 
find in the Iliad. And we should bear in mind, that 
in nothing has Homer more emphatically established 
a type of his own, than in the matter of similes. This 



1 Od. iv. 335, 791 ; vi. 130 ; xxii. 402. 



2 Od. xxii. 303. 



520 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



being so, a treatment so remarkable and characteristic, 
found in each of the two Poems, furnishes of itself 
one among the very large number of particulars, which 
go to make up an inductive argument for the unity of 
their authorship. 

The similes of Homer may in one sense be consid- 
ered as a miniature of the Poems themselves. Accom- 
panying the movement of the action, they sweep the 
entire round of human life. There is in them the 
same elasticity and variety, as in the thought and 
the style : these they follow over hill and dale, as the 
faithful dog follows the step of his master. Their 
tone changes in precise proportion to that of the sub- 
ject, and of the effect that the Poet seeks to produce. 

The similes afford, as I conceive, one among the 
incidental proofs that, if Homer was indeed blind, he 
was blind not from his birth, but from subsequent 
failure of the organ, or calamity. The experience of 
hunting in the woods and among the mountains, for 
example, is detailed with a vivid exactness which im- 
plies a knowledge founded on experience, just as expe- 
rience in this case seems probably to imply vigorous 
limbs, hardy habits, and the perfection of the organs 
of sense. 



CHAPTER XV. 



Miscellaneous. 

Section I. The Idea of Beauty in Homer. 

The conception of beauty in the Poems of Homer is 
alike intense and chaste. He never associates Beauty 
with evil in such a manner, as to attract our sympa- 
thies towards a bad or contemptible person. This is 
markedly shown by his treatment of Aphrodite, of 
Nireus, and of Paris, on whose personal beauty he 
never dwells as he does on that of Nausicaa 1 or of 
Euphorbos. 2 Only on the one occasion when he has 
shown some sense of shame and duty, and is going 
forth full-armed to battle, is this prince allowed to 
appear for a moment otherwise than despicable. 3 It is 
not by a didactic morality, but by a genuine impulse 
and habit of nature, that Homer thus joins and severs, 
as far as in him lies, what ought to be joined and sev- 
ered respectively. The legend of Ganymede, 4 which 
was afterwards perverted to the purposes of depravity, 
is in Homer perfectly pure, and indeed seems to re- 



1 Od. vi. 149-169. 
3 II. vi. 332, 505. 



2 II. xvii. 50-60. 
* II. xx. 233-235. 



522 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



call, though it is in a lower form, the tradition of 
Enoch, who ' was not, for God took him.' 1 

We may, however, mark the downward course of 
these traditions, following the lapse of time. Two 
generations after Ganymede, Tithonos, of the same 
family, is appropriated by the goddess Eos as a hus- 
band. 2 One generation more gives us the lawless love 
of Aphrodite and Anchises ; 3 and the same goddess, in 
the next generation, promises to Paris a beautiful wife, 
whom he was to obtain by treachery and violence as 
well as adultery. Priam seems wholly without rule 
on this subject; he charges the fall of Helen 4 on the 
gods, and, even when reviling Paris inclusively with 
his surviving sons, makes no reference to his peculiar 
crimes. 5 

It would appear that in ascribing so much beauty to 
the royal family of Troy, Homer may have been fol- 
lowing tradition. When treating of the Greeks, he 
appears to award it in pretty close proportion to general 
excellence. Achilles, the greatest hero of the Greeks, is 
the most beautiful ; 6 and Thersites, their basest wretch, 
is loaded with ugliness and deformity. 7 Odysseus, the 
counterpart without being the rival, of Achilles, has 
undoubted beauty of a different kind, although with- 
out lofty stature ; 8 and Ajax, the second of the army 
in strength, is in the Odyssey called second in beauty 
also. 9 

We may trace the value set by Homer on personal 
beauty not only in the loving spirit of passages such as 

i Gen. v. 24. 2 II. xi. i. Od. v. i. 3 II. ii. 821. 

4 II. iii. 164. 5 11. xxiv. 260. 

e ii. ii. 674 ; xxiv. 629. Od. xi. 470. * II. ii. 216-219. 

8 II. iii. 193. 9 Od. xi. 470. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



523 



those that relate to Euphorbos and Nausicaa, and in 
his assignment of the gift to his two protagonists, 
but also in some notes appertaining to the two nations 
respectively. No Trojan is allowed the glory of that 
auburn hair which is ascribed to Achilles, 1 in one place 
to Odysseus, 2 and habitually to Menelaos. Nor are 
they ever adorned collectively with epithets of personal 
attractiveness such as those given to the Greeks of 
the flashing eye (ikUtaTteg), 8 of the flowing hair Qaciq^ao- 
liomvteg^)^ and of the admirable beauty (el8og dytjtoi). 6 
And while, in the case of Nireus, Homer has care- 
fully discriminated between mind and body, he has so 
marked his perfection of form that no reader of the 
Iliad, however careless, can fail to be impressed by the 
record. Manifestly, too, he delivers his own sentiments 
from the mouth of Odysseus at the Court of Alkinoos, 
where he speaks of beauty, the power of thought, and 
the power of speech, as the three great gifts of the gods 
to the individual man. 6 

Stature, as well as form, entered very much into the 
conception of beauty among the ancients ; and this for 
women as well as men. Yet he was sensible, at least 
with respect to women, that tallness might pass into 
excess. Accordingly, among the Laistrugones, when 
two comrades of Odysseus met the queen, 4 they found 
her big as a mountain's top, and loathed her.' 7 

Homer had a profound perception of the beauty of 
animals, at least in the case of the horse, as to color, 
form, and especially movement. We trace in him a 



1 II. i. 197. 2 od. xiii. 399. 

4 II. ii. 11, et passim. 
6 Od. viii. 167-177. 



3 II. i. 389, et alibi. 
5 II. v. 787 ; viii. 228. 
1 Od. x. 113. 



524 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



commencement of the pedigrees of this animal. 1 It is 
with an intense sympathy that the Poet describes the 
lordly creature and his motions, which he has idealized 
up to the highest point by the tears of horses, their 
speech, and their scouring the expanse of sea and the 
tips of standing corn. 2 The whole series of passages 
relating to the horse in the Iliad is noble and emphatic 
throughout ; and in no parts of the Poems can we more 
distinctly trace, by the slower or quicker movement of 
his verse, his adaptation of sound to sense. Space 
does not permit me here to exhibit in detail the proofs 
of Homer's admiration for the beauty of the horse. 3 

The appreciation of landscape was a faculty less 
highly developed in Homer ; yet it surely existed. 
The mountainous country of Laceda^mon, which he 
calls hollow, he also calls lovely ; 4 the epithet employed 
(erateinos) being the same which he uses to describe 
Hermione, the daughter of Helen, a person endowed 
with the beauty of golden Aphrodite. 5 Corfu, to which 
he applies the same descriptive word, 6 is in our day of 
the highest fame for the beauty of its scenery. 

Again, Telemachos apprises Menelaos that Ithaca 
is a goat-feeding island, without meadows, and more 
eperatos than a horse-feeding country. 7 The epithet 
is equivalent to the one last before mentioned ; and 
as the meaning is that a hill-country is more beautiful 
to the eye than champaign, we seem here to have a 
distinct appreciation of the beauty of scenery. The 
famous simile of the watch-fires and the sky by night 

i II. v. 265-273 ; xx. 221. 2 n. xx. 226. 

3 See Studies on Homer, iii. 410-416. 

4 II. ii. 581 ; iii. 239. Od. iv. 1. 5 Od. iv. 13. 

« Od. vii. 79. 7 Od. iv. 606. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



525 



appears to carry something of a like interpretation. 1 
And as regards the more limited combinations of what 
may be termed home-views, we have at the least two 
great instances in the Odyssey : one of them the gar- 
den of Alkinoos; 2 the other the grotto of Calypso, of 
which he closes his description by saying that ' even 
an Immortal, on beholding it, would be seized with 
wonder and delight.' 3 

At the same time, I do not doubt that life, and not 
repose, is the grand and vital element of beauty in the 
conceptions of Homer, whether they are applied to 
nature, or to the animated world. 

Section II. The Idea of Art in Homer. 

The Homeric Poems give us a view substantially 
clear of the state of art in the time of the Poet. They 
also contain conceptions of the principle of art, so 
vivid as perhaps never to have been surpassed. And, 
unless I am mistaken, they indicate to us the source 
from which the specific excellence of Greek Art, in its 
highest form, proceeded. By the term Art, I understand 
the production of beauty in material forms palpable 
to the eye ; whether associated with industrial purposes 
or not. 

First, then, there are many works of art mentioned 
in Homer : but, in the whole of them, it is associated 
with some purpose of utility. The greatest of them 
all is the Shield of Achilles. Next to which, perhaps, 
comes the armor of Agamemnon ; 4 various bowls, men- 



i II. viii. 557. 
3 Od. y. 63-75. 



2 Od. vii. 112-132. 
4 II. xi. 15-46. 



526 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



tioned in different places ; 1 the baldric of Heracles ; 2 
and the golden clasp of the mantle of Odysseus. 3 In 
all of them, living form is represented. There are 
other objects of a less defined class, but belonging 
rather to mere decoration. Such are the necklace of 
gold and amber, carried by the Phoinikes to Surie ; 4 
the couch or chair of Penelope, with a stool to match; 5 
and the burnished sheets of copper in the palaces of 
Alkinoos and Menelaos. 6 There are also works of 
simple mechanical skill, such as the airy net of metal 
worked by Hephaistos. 7 We find in the Poems no 
production of what is termed pure art : everything, to 
which art is applied, has an object beyond itself: utility 
aspires to be decked with beauty ; and beauty is never 
dissociated from utility. 

Next, as to the material of art. We have in Homer 
no sign of the use of any material, except metal, for 
the production of beautiful forms ; and, specifically, 
the metals of gold, silver, tin, and copper. It seems 
probable that there were, at least in Troy, statues of 
the gods. But probably also these were rude images 
of wood, such as Pausanias describes under the name 
of xoana, in which Homer would find nothing answer- 
ing to his conception of beauty. 

As to the range of art in point of subjects, we must 
consider it, in all likelihood, as almost entirely confined 
to the exhibition of form, and of form too, in the solid. 
Of painting proper, and therefore of colors as con- 
nected with painting, we have no sign ; though we 

1 II. xxiii. 740-750. Od. iv. 613-619. 

2 Od. xi. 609-614. 3 Od. xix. 226-231. 
4 Od. xv. 459. 5 Od. xix. 55-58. 

6 Od. iv. 72; vii. 86. 1 Od. viii. 279. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



527 



have one case of the use of a single color, in the stain- 
ing of ivory. 1 But the use of the sheets of copper, 
already mentioned, is a step in that direction ; and the 
intermixture of varieties of metal, especially on the 
Shield of Achilles, and in the armor of Agamemnon, 
show what was perhaps the fullest resort to the prin- 
ciple of color that the limited command of material 
permitted. 

As to the seat of art, we cannot affirm that it had as 
yet for any purpose been practically established in 
Greece. No single operation is recorded in the Poems 
which gives an indication of high metallic skill as 
having been attained anywhere in that country. By 
far the most considerable is the bedstead of Odysseus, 
which is adorned with gold, silver, and copper : but 
then Odysseus is a master in every art, almost a 
magician : and we are not told that even his art 
included the representation of living form. 2 The 
coloring process, to which reference has been made, 
is supposed to be carried on, not by a Greek, but by 
a Meonian or a Carian woman. And in most of the 
cases where a true work of art is mentioned, it is 
referred directly to Sidon or the Phoenician ; in one or 
two instances to Thrace, on the shore of which the 
Phoenicians seem to have had settlements. In other 
cases it is referred, like the Shield, to Hephaistos, a 
god of Phoenician associations. In the case of the 
bowl, presented by the king of the Sidonians to Mene- 
laos, 3 we are told expressly that it was the work of 
Hephaistos. The gold-beater and the ioXkzvq, or smith, 
are known to Homer ; but only, as far as appears, for 



i II. iv. 141. 



2 Od. xxiii. 195-201. 



3 Od. iy. 615-619. 



528 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



the simplest operations ; the former simply attaches a 
plate or band of gold to the horns of the sacrificial ox, 
and it appears from the passage that he did not ply a 
separate trade, but was merely the copper-smith en- 
gaged in beating gold, 1 inasmuch as he is called 
chalkeus, as well as chrusochoos. All that related 
to the execution of works of art, so far as we can 
judge from the Poems, the Achaian Greeks had yet to 
learn. 

But as in other points, so in this, the Poet opened 
the way for his countrymen, and taught them how 
they should walk along it in the after-time. As his, 
perception of beauty in living form was most keen, so 
his idea of art in forms inanimate, copied from nature, 
was alike powerful and simple : it was that which 
brought them up to life. In the nature of things, we 
perhaps may say, it cannot be carried farther. The 
chairs of Hephaistos moved spontaneously. 2 The 
porter-dogs of Alkinoos, wrought in gold and silver, 3 
were of an immortal youth. The metallic handmaids 
of the god himself were endowed with thought as well 
as motion. 4 In the ploughing scene upon the Shield, 
as the furrow is turned, the earth darkens, though it 
is of gold. 5 And in the battle compartment, the sculp- 
tured warriors fight, and the dead are dragged off the 
field, with actual movement as in a scene of war. 6 
Such is the bold delineation by which the oldest poet 
of Art has given the challenge to his successors, and 
bids them excel him if they can. 

But all these representations, however raised into 



i Od. iii. 432-438. 
4 II. xviii. 417. 



2 II. xviii. 375. 
5 II. xviii. 649. 



3 Od. vii. 91. 

6 II, xviii. 533-540. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



529 



sublimity by genius, msut have had a basis in fact; 
and it seems difficult to resist the conclusion that 
Homer, and the Greeks of his time, must have seen, 
though they had not yet learned to make, art-works of 
a high order, imported, without doubt, in general from 
Phoenicia, and produced either there or further east- 
wards. 

The Sidonian works themselves, if executed, as 
Homer commonly represents, in gold and silver, were 
doomed without doubt to perish, so soon as the time 
should arrive when men might come to prize the 
workmanship less, than the application of the mere 
material to other uses. But if we may judge from 
the testimony of such remains as are now accessible, 
there were two great schools, with which Phoenician 
artists must have been in relation, alike from their 
political and their geographical connections : the 
Egyptian and the Assyrian. It is not, I suppose, too 
much to say, that we perceive, in a portion at least of 
the actual remains of these schools, the attainment 
of high excellence in intention and design, with no 
inconsiderable progress in execution. They seem, 
however, to me to represent different principles : the 
Assyrian appears to embody the principle of life and 
motion ; the Egyptian, the principle of repose. If this 
be true, there can be little doubt, I presume, that the 
ideas of Homer had their base and fountain-head much 
more in the former than in the latter. But in any 
case, it would really seem probable, from the vivid and 
stirring descriptions of Homer, that these Phoenician 
importations supplied patterns, and suggested ideas, 
which might well, in process of time, become the 
nucleus of the first great efforts of Greek art. 

34 



530 JUVENTUS MUNDI. 

When that nucleus was once supplied, and when 
the new life began to grow, then the Olympian system 
of religion provided it, through the union of the divine 
nature to the human form, with that lofty aim, which 
braced it to a perpetual effort upwards, and so con- 
veyed to it the pledge and the talisman of all tran- 
scendent excellence. Every idea appertaining to deity 
was held capable of representation in matter : but it 
could only be matter moulded according to the shape 
of man. Thus Greek art was a perpetual untiring 
pursuit of the highest standard of the ideal, while it 
seems to have had for its starting-point foreign models 
which, though not similarly inspired, were of such 
high merit as to suggest to Homer that imitation 
might run no unsuccessful race with nature. This 
happy union of the most fundamental conditions of 
design and execution was seconded by the lights of a 
fine climate, by the possession of the purest marbles, 
and by the corporal perfection of a race abounding in 
the noblest models. We cannot wonder that, with 
these advantages, Greece, within her 'limits of knowl- 
edge and experience, should have held down to our 
own day the throne of Art. 

Section III. Physics of Homer. 

Homer's ideas of physics were extremely simple, as 
well as apparently few. He perceived that rivers were 
fed by rain and snow ; and therefore he calls them 
Jumtkg, Zeus-fallen, which we should probably under- 
stand to mean 4 coming from the realm of Zeus.' Fire 
is the single element which he seems in any direct 
mode to identify with an Olympian Deity, and this 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



531 



only in one undoubted instance, where he calls it 
Hephaistos. He considered the human body to be 
composed of the elements which make up earth and 
water, for he treats it as resolvable by Death into 
these substances. 1 It is not easy to arrive at a positive 
conclusion about his conception of the figure of the 
Earth, beyond the fact that he considered it to be 
oblong, which may be probably shown from a compari- 
son of many passages in the Poems. The land, as 
known to his experience, was limited. A circle, of 
from 350 to 400 miles in diameter, would have com- 
prised more than all the places, that were within the 
limits of ordinary Greek knowledge and experience. 
All his ideas of vastness were connected with the sea. 
From his placing the River Ocean at all points of the 
compass, and his making it flow round the Earth, 
together with the general disposition of objects on the 
Shield of Achilles, he may be imagined to have con- 
ceived of our planet as a flat surface. On the other 
hand, he seems to connect the extreme East with the 
farthest West, Sunset with Sunrise, as if he thought it 
were a surface wrapped (so to speak) round a cylinder. 
For, placing in the far east the Island of Thrinaki& and 
the Oxen of the Sun, he makes that deity declare that 
with these animals he amused himself not only when 
he rose, but when he returned from heaven to earth ; 
that is to say, at the time of his setting. To this idea 
there is a partial approximation in the formation of a 
shield, such as it appears either uniformly.or commonly 
to have been in the time of Homer, namely an oval, or 
oblong. The Homeric shield is called dpyifiQozrj as 



i II. vii. 99. 



532 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



covering the human figure. But it is also called evxvxXog. 
Does this refer to a rounding at the top and bottom? 
or does it more probably mean that an horizontal sec- 
tion of the shield represented a segment of a well- 
drawn circle ? If the latter be the meaning, the two 
epithets are placed in thorough harmony. For, the 
more the shield is rounded horizontally, the more does 
it shelter the warrior who uses it. And this form 
might agree with the passage in Od. xii. 380, 1 where 
the 4 return ' of the Sun may mean his passing from 
the point at which men lose him in the West, to his 
bed or place of rising (dvrolai) in the East. 2 

The amusing threat of the Sun, that he will go down 
to Hades and shine there, is not so strange or far- 
fetched, relatively to Homeric ideas, as might at first 
sight appear. For, while he set and rose in the tceqi- 
xalXr t g Xlfxv}], 8 the exceeding beautiful expanse of 
Okeanos, as he had to make his way from the Okeanos 
of the West to the Okeanos of the East, he might easily 
be thought, in doing this, to pass through, or near, that 
underground region, in which dwelt the Gods-Avengers, 
and which was the realm of Aides and Persephone*. 
A'ides, says Poseidon, obtained by lot the tfcpog feooeig.* 
Now zophos in Homer is used to signify the West: 
and yet Odysseus enters the realm of A'idoneus in the 
East, near the Sunrise. With all that dark subterra- 
nean space between, the Olympian Immortals had no 
concern : for them, as for us, the light of the Sun both 

1 We might be tempted to treat as Phoenician this piece of cos- 
mology. But we should then perhaps be pushing to an extreme the 
doctrine of a Phoenician origin for the Theotechny of the middle Odys- 
sey, which would hardly reach so far into details. 

2 Od. xii. 4. 3 Od. hi. 1. 4 II. xv. 191. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



533 



came and went ; ' He rose on gods and men, over the 
teeming earth.' 1 The change threatened to be made 
may have been only this, that the Sun, instead of pass- 
ing through or round the dwelling of A'ides, would 
remain there. Zeus therefore takes his menace as 
perfectly serious, and replies in effect, 6 Do as hereto- 
fore, and all shall be right.' 2 

Section IV. Metals in Homer. 

Archaeological inquiry is now teaching us to inves- 
tigate and to mark off the periods of human progress, 
among other methods, by the materials employed from 
age to age for making utensils and implements. And 
the Poems of Homer have this among their many 
peculiarities ; they exhibit to us, with as much clear- 
ness perhaps as any archaeological investigation, one 
of the metallic ages. It is moreover the first and oldest 
of the metallic ages, the age of copper, which precedes 
the general knowledge of the art of fusing metals ; 
which (as far as general rules can be laid down) im- 
mediately follows the age of stone, and which in its 
turn is probably often followed by the age of bronze, 
when the combination of copper with tin has come 
within the resources of human art. 

The grand metallic operation of the Poems is that 
of Hephaistos in the production of the Shield. The. 
metals used 3 were gold, silver, tin, and chalcos, which 
has been by mere license of translators interpreted as 
brass, for there was no brass till long ages after Homer 
had rolled away : which has been more plausibly taken 



i Od. iii. 3. 



2 Od. xii. 384-388. 



3 II. xviii. 474. 



534 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



to mean bronze : but which, after a good deal of 
inquiry, I am satisfied can only mean copper, either 
universally and absolutely, or as a general rule, with 
very insignificant exceptions. 

The discussion would be too long for this place. 
But the passage immediately before us of itself affords 
almost sufficient instruction. 

In the formation of the Shield, there is no mixture 
or fusion of metals. The same, and all the same, 
which are put into the roaring fire, reappear, each by 
its original name, in various portions of the Shield. 
There is indeed one passage, where a trench is repre- 
sented, and this is called kuanee, a word meaning 
either made of kuanos, or like kuanos in color. 
There are two reasons for giving the latter significa- 
tion to the word. One, that it commonly bears that 
sense in Homer ; the other, that though kuanos may 
have been a mixed metal, yet there is no sign of found- 
ing or casting in this great masterpiece of Hephaistos. 

He could only mix by melting ; and had he melted 
metals, we must have heard of moulds to receive 
them. Instead of this, the only instruments which he 
makes ready for the work 1 are 

1. The anvil. 

2. The hammer in his (right) hand. 

3. The pincers in his left. 

It is plain, then, that he was supposed not to melt, 
but only to soften the metals by heating, and then 
to beat them into the forms he wished to produce. 

Had Homer been conversant with the fusing or 
casting of metals, this is the very place where we must 

i II. xviii. 476, 477. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



535 



have become aware of it ; especially as his works o f 
skilled art are all of Phoenician origin or kin, and 
his Hephaistos is a god of Phoenician associations. 

If chalcos be not copper, then copper is never 
mentioned in Homer. But, in an early stage of society, 
copper was commonly by far the cheapest and most - 
accessible of metals ; and it is quite impossible to 
suppose, that we never once hear of copper from an 
author, who incessantly makes mention (so it is 
argued) of another metal, whereof it is by far the 
largest component part. 

One of Homer's epithets for chalcos is eruthros, 
red ; and this it is impossible under any conditions 
to apply to bronze. 

There is abundant evidence of a correspondence 
between the seven metals of Homer, and the seven 
metals of the ancient planetary worship of the East : 
but one of these is copper, and from it Cyprus was 
named ; and Homer introduces Mentes sailing to a 
port of Cyprus (Temese) for chalcos. 1 

We find chalcos in Homer a very cheap and 
common metal ; tin a very scarce and rare metal, only 
used in very small quantities, and even approaching in 
some degree to the character of what we now term a 
precious metal. It is very improbable that the defen- 
sive armor, and all the meaner utensils, in Homer 
could have contained an eighth part, or thereabouts, 
of tin. 

So Hesiod, in his age of chalcos, represents not 
only the arms and implements, but the dwellings as 
made of that material. 2 This courd not have been 
bronze. 

i Od. i. 184. 2 Opp. 143-155. 

f 



536 JUVENTUS MUNDI. 

And I have high metallurgical authority for stating, 
that the sheathing of chalcos on walls as already men- 
tioned must, for mechanical reasons, have been some 
material other than bronze. 

It is said that chalcos cannot be hardened so as to 
make a cutting tool ; whereas this material is named 
in Homer as used for peeling bark, and cutting twigs 
and young branches, as well as for making weapons 
of war. 1 We have, however, in at least one place its 
imperfection by reason of softness noticed. 2 But, as 
portions of tin are found in some copper ores, may 
it not be that there were also small portions of it 
in virgin copper used for these purposes ? I find, 
moreover, that ancient nails have been discovered, 
containing 97| per cwt. of copper, and only 2\ of 
tin : and surgical instruments made of copper alone 
have been discovered recently in a tomb at Athens. 3 

But although it seems clear that chalcos in general 
means copper, this may not compel us absolutely to 
exclude from its signification all compositions of the 
nature of bronze. In later times the word appears 
to have included both senses. The Latin aes without 
an epithet described a compound metal; with the 
epithet cyprium it meant copper. Some bronzes with 
a polish are not wholly unlike copper, though they 
want its redness. Possibly some sharp instruments of 
this composition might be imported into Greece, with- 
out at once leading to a distinction of name, especially 
if there were native copper, or kinds of copper, in 
use, which had some slight natural admixture of tin. 

i II. i. 236 ; xxi. 37. 2 II. xi. 237. 

3 Gobel, Einfluss der Chimie auf die Ermittelung der Volker der 
Vorzeit, pp. 25, 35. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 537 

But these cases must have been exceptional, so far 
as the use of the word in the Poems is concerned. 

Kuan os is generally the type of a very dark color 
in Homer, and the word may possibly mean bronze. 
The Greeks had it in small quantities : it was more 
valuable than copper, but apparently less prized than 
tin. In the planetary worship of the East, six deities 
were connected with six pure metals, and one with 
kuanos. In Homer we find the six metals, and the 
kuanos. Now as the septiform system was apparently 
represented in the seven gates of Thebes, and as the 
Greeks evidently depended on the Phoenicians for im- 
ported metals, I conclude that kuanos is the seventh 
metal, a mixed one ; and I know no conclusive reason 
why it should not be bronze. It was used only for 
ornamentation, and in small quantities : if we except 
the cornice of kuanos in the quasi-Phoenician palace 
of Alkinoos. 1 Metals in those days seem to have been 
the great basis of commerce, when there was no appar- 
atus available for storing, sheltering, or distributing 
with rapidity, perishable materials. 

The metals of Homer, then, are — 

1. Gold. 5. Iron. 

2. Silver. 6. Chalcos or Copper. 

3. Tin. 7. Lead. 

4. Kuanos. 

Silver appears to have been rarer than gold : as might 
be expected, considering that it is chiefly obtained by 
scientific means. It came but from one place, 2 Alub£ 
in Asia Minor. We do not hear of it as used in ex- 



i Od. vii. 87. 



2 II. ii. 857. 



538 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



change, nor, I think, in stored wealth ; but, in plating 
only, and in works of art. 

The respective order of value for the metals is, I 
believe, that in which I have just placed them. Not 
so their quantities. Of lead we hear very little in- 
deed. Iron was greatly more esteemed than copper, 
and was very rare, though seemingly more abundant 
than tin or kuanos. We hear of it, together with 
gold and copper, as an article of stored wealth. 1 It 
was only used for cutting instruments ; and chiefly, as 
far as appears, for woodmen's axes. The quantities of 
all the metals would seem to have been very limited, 
except of dial cos only. 

Gold was employed in plating, for works of art ; it 
appears also as stored wealth, and moreover, as in the 
Suit on the Shield, with a slight approach to the char- 
acter of a measure of value. 2 

Tin was used in small quantities for ornament, and 
was plated on copper. 3 The only articles entirely 
made of it were the greaves of Achilles ; and these 
proceeded from a divine, not a human, workman. 4 

Section Y. The Measure of Value in Homer. 

Although the Greek of the heroic age was eminently 
temperate, and abhorrent of excess, the spirit of ac- 
quisition was already strong within him. Not only 
were the crude elements of wealth carefully stored, 
but works of art had begun to be prized ; and beau- 
tiful armor, garments, and even personal- ornaments, 



1 II. vi. 48, et alibi. 

3 II. xxiii. 561 ; xx. 271. 



2 II. xviii. 507. 

4 II. xxi. 582, 590-594. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



539 



were in use among the great. We have, however, 
no distinct case recorded of inland commerce as 
among the Greeks ; and the business of exchange had 
not passed beyond the form of barter. 

Yet it appears that gold had begun to be used as 
a convenient material for the requital of service, and 
probably also for the liquidation of penalty. On the 
Shield, the most approved Judge was to receive two 
talents of that metal 1 for his sentence. And as we 
hear of the payment of fines on various occasions 2 
(distinguished, in the terms of the Pact, from the 
restitution of the stolen property), it is probable that 
there is a reference to a precious metal. The epithets 
tiprjeig and EQizipog or ' priceful,' 3 applied to gold, and 
to that only, may have a relation to this custom. In 
the Twenty-second Odyssey, we have a r?p/ or fine of 
gold and copper. 4 

But a measure of service is one thing, and a meas- 
ure of value for exchange is another ; and we have 
no sign that gold or silver was used as a common 
standard, to place commodities in any definite relation 
of value to one another ; although the hoarding, of 
gold in particular, was a step towards this further de- 
velopment. Another initial sign was the division of 
the metal into fixed and equal quantities, which is 
recorded on the Shield. 

The only commodity which approximates, in the 
actual usage exhibited by the Poems, to a measure 
of value, is the ox ; for in this alone other commodities 
are priced. The arms of Diomed are worth nine oxen ; 

1 II. xviii. 507. 

2 II. ix. 632-634 ; xiii. 669. Od. ii. 192. 

3 II. xviii. 475 ; cf. ix. 268. 4 Qd. xxii. 57-59. 



540 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



those of Glaucos are worth a hundred. 1 The tripod, 
which was the first prize for wrestlers in the Twenty- 
third Iliad, was valued at twelve oxen ; the woman 
captive, skilled in works of industry, at four. 2 This 
case does not probably exhibit the normal relations; 
for in the camp women-captives would be cheap, and 
oxen dear. Accordingly we find that, when Eurucleia 
was brought to Ithaca, she was purchased by Laertes 
for twenty oxen, or for the value of them. 3 

When Euneos sent ships laden with wine to trade 
with the Greek army, his men took in return — (1) 
copper, (2) iron, (3) hides, (4) slaves, (5) oxen. 
Probably the demand for wine was universal : each 
paid for it with what he had to spare, in the different 
kinds of booty acquired. It is not likely that oxen 
would be sent away from the camp ; but it may be 
intended that the men of Euneos took them from 
those who had them beyond their wants, as a com- 
modity which they could easily dispose of to others of 
the chiefs or soldiery less amply supplied. 4 

And we have seen from iEschylus, in the Agamem- 
non, that the figure of the ox was the sign first im- 
printed upon a coin ; doubtless one intended to rep- 
resent the equivalent in the metal of the animal. 5 

Section VI. The Use of Number in Homer. 

The idea of number is one which, up to a certain 
point, is readily grasped by an average adult of the 
present day. Persons with a special gift apprehend 
the idea, with the same clearness, on a larger scale. 



1 II. vi. 236. 

4 II. vii. 472-475. 



2 II. xxiii. 702-705. 
5 Agam. 37. 



3 Od. i. 431. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



541 



Children fall short of those who are grown up, and in 
early youth have no distinct conception beyond a very 
few units. It seems that, in the childhood of the world, 
men even of the capacity and grasp of Homer had no 
definite idea of numbers beyond a very narrow range. 
By a definite idea of numbers I mean that, which 
grasps the whole without losing the separate concep- 
tion of the parts. 

We find in Homer as round numbers the sums of 
ten thousand, and nine thousand. An accomplished 
person knows ten thousand things. 1 The shout of 
Ares was like that of nine thousand or ten thousand 
men. 2 These expressions are evidently altogether 
vague. 

Erichthonios had three thousand horses. 3 Euneos, 
who came to trade with the Achaian army, presented 
the two Atridai with a thousand metres of wine. 4 At 
the Trojan bivouac, a thousand watchfires were kindled 
on the plain. 5 Iphidamas, having given a hundred 
oxen to gain a wife, promises a thousand goats and 
sheep. 6 Some of these instances are obviously figura- 
tive : and it is even possible that all are so ; for we 
find the rough and indefinite use of the numeral de- 
scending as low as to the single hundred. It is 
plain, from many passages in the Poems, that the 
hecatomb does not mean a hundred oxen, but only a 
batch of oxen, sufficient for one of the more solemn 
sacrifices. Crete has in one passage a hundred cities, 
in another ninety. 7 Lucaon says, that Achilles sold 
him in Lemnos for the value of a hundred oxen. 8 But 



i Od. ii. 16. 2 ii. v . 860. 

4 II. vii. 471. 5 II. viii. 562. 

1 II. ii. 649. Od. xix. 174. 



3 II. xx. 221. 
6 II. xi. 244. 
8 II. xxi. 79. 



542 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



though a prince by birth, he could only be worth a very 
small fraction of that number of oxen, when sold as a 
slave from the Greek camp. Every gold drop or tassel 
of the Aigis of Athene was worth a hundred oxen. 1 
This, if taken literally, would assign to the Aigis itself 
a weight of perhaps not less than a ton and a half, 
which is inadmissible, since she carries it in the field 
among the Greeks, and must be in a certain relation 
of stature to them. 2 

The negative evidence of the Poems is in conso- 
nance with these instances of the positive class. The 
Poet nowhere states the numbers of the Greek Army ; 
not even of any of. the separate contingents. And 
when he gives the number of ships for each contingent, 
it is in every instance, except a very few, of which the 
highest is twenty-two, a round number. In two cases 
he states the crews ; they are 120 and 50 respectively. 
These numbers have been taken as a key to an exact 
computation. But it is impossible that all the chief 
contingents should have been in round numbers ; and 
we are told that Agamemnon's division was by far the 
first in number of men, 3 whereas in number of ships 
it was but very little beyond some others. 

Homer has clearly shown us how weak he felt him- 
self in the use of numbers, by the curious passage in 
which he compares the relative numbers of Greeks and 
Trojans proper. Were they to be counted, says Aga- 
memnon, the Greeks in tens, and the Trojans appointed 
singly to serve them with wine, many a party of ten 
would be without a cup-bearer. 4 Had lie been in any 
manner familiar with the use of numbers on a large 



i II. ii. 448. 
3 II. ii. 580. 



2 Studies on Honier, vol. iii. p. 430. 
4 II. ii. 123-128. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



543 



scale, he could not, on a point of such interest, have 
been contented with so slight and vague an approxi- 
mation. We may therefore be sure that when he 
speaks of the thousand watchfires of the Trojan biv- 
ouac, and adds that by each fire there sat fifty warriors, 1 
he had never performed the mental process, to us so 
simple, of reckoning the force in arms at fifty thou- 
sand. 

The largest number which I find in the Poems with 
any sign of definite use, is that of the fat hogs under 
the care of Eumaios. They are 360; 2 and, as one is 
daily sent down to the banquet of the Suitors, they 
correspond with the days of the year ; of which it is 
probable that, with the help of the months as an inter- 
mediate step, a real computation had been made. 3 

Except where aided by the revolutions of the seasons, 
or by some fixed usage, Homer is extremely vague in 
the specification of periods of time. Odysseus de- 
scribes as 6 yesterday and the day before,' which we 
may take as the equivalent of our ' a day or two ago,' 
what had happened at a distance of time between a 
fortnight and three weeks back. The periods of years 
which go beyond a generation are never mentioned ; 
but time is always computed, and with a remarkable 
accuracy, by the genealogies of notable persons. The 
generation, or ysverj, appears to have been conceived 
by the Poet as equal to thirty years ; and yet here we 
ought probably to say, to thirty years more or less. 
The age of Nestor was evidently about or over seventy ; 
he was bearing the kingly office in his third ysvsrj or 
generation. 4 And it seems as if the ten years of the 



1 II. viii. 563. 
8 Od. xiv. 93. 



2 Od. xiv. 20. 
4 II. i. 252. 



544 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



war, with ten of preparation preceding them, and ten 
of wanderings which follow, were intended poetically to 
make up this whole, so that an entire generation 
should be spent upon it. Yet the first of the three 
terms would appear incapable of a literal interpreta- 
tion. We may be sceptical as to the other two ; but it 
seems clear, that the Poet could hardly have intended 
us to believe that ten years were expended in gathering 
the force. 

Only in one place does Homer refer to any actual 
process of reckoning. He describes Proteus counting 
his seals by the word pempassetai. 1 I understand 
this to mean no more than that he reckoned them on 
his five fingers. It is however somewhat remarkable, 
that this only reference to any part or element of the 
decimal scale, which we are still supposed to derive from 
the East, should be found upon an Eastern scene, and 
in connection with a personage of purely Phoenician 
associations. 

Section VII. The Sense of Color in Homer. 

In the ' Studies on Homer,' I have considered at 
some length the manner in which Homer handles the 
subject of color. I can in this place only lay down 
certain propositions without attempting the proof of 
them in detail. 

To us of the present day, color, and its broader dis- 
tinctions, are familiar from childhood upwards. But, 
in the first place, it is to be borne in mind, that the ac- 
quired knowledge of one generation becomes in time the 



i Od. iv. 412, 451. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



545 



inherited aptitude of another. In the second place, much 
of our varied experience in color is due to chemistry, 
and to commerce, which brings to us the productions 
of all the regions of the world. Mere Nature, at any 
one spot, does not present to us a full and well-marked 
series of the principal colors such as to be habitually 
before the mind's eye. Thirdly, the curious investiga- 
tions 1 of late years have shown us that, even now and 
in our own country, no inconsiderable proportion of 
persons are without the faculty of perceiving some of 
the primary distinctions of color. 

With respect to Homer, my main conclusions are 

1. That his perceptions of color, considered as light 
decomposed, though highly poetical, are also very in- 
determinate. 

2. But that his perceptions of light not decomposed, 
as varying between light and dark, white and black, 
were most vivid and effective. 

3. That accordingly his descriptions of color gener- 
ally tend a good deal to range themselves in a scale 
(so to speak) of degrees, rather than of kinds, of 
light. 

The primitive experience of the prismatic colors must 
have been principally drawn from the rainbow. But 
Homer only once mentions the rainbow, 2 and here he 
compares it with the snakes of dark metal on the breast- 
plate of Agamemnon ; of which comparison I can dis- 
cern no other ground than that " they would flash a 
varying light as the chieftain moved. 

His goddess Iris is in evident relation to the rain- 
bow. Yet he never gives her an epithet of color ; 3 



1 See Wilson on Color Blindness. 
3 II. viii. 398. 

35 



2*11. xi. 27. 



546 



JUVENTUS MUNDI. 



though he calls her golden-winged. I think these facts 
go some way towards proving my main theses. 

There are no words in Homer which can with any 
certainty be held to mean any one of these three colors : 
orange, green, and blue. His word kuaneos, which 
is more like indigo, does not seem to have been clearly 
separated in his mind from black ; 1 while he also ap- 
plies it to wet sand. 2 His word porphureosfor violet, 
runs into his word eruthros for red. His word xan- 
thos for yellow is applied to auburn or red hair, to the 
ears of corn, to a chestnut horse, to a river (apt to be 
swollen I suppose, and darkened by mud). In truth, 
there is not one single epithet of color which we can 
affirm to be thoroughly defined. The word phoinix, 
which seems to intermix with xanthos, is also used 
as the equivalents of the words which would be rendered 
purple and red. Only a minute examination could col- 
lect the whole evidence in the case ; but I will close 
with observing that oil is once called rosy, 3 iron and 
wool violet, and oxen wine-colored. But in the use of 
the words white and black, light and dark, which is 
abundant, Homer's eye seems rarely or never to go 
astray. 



1 See II. xxiv. 94. 



2 Od. xii. 243. 



3 II. xxiii. 186. 



INDEX. 



A 

Achaians, who, 66 ; epithets 
applied to, 61 ; local force 
of the Achaian name in the 
historic ages, 65 ; distinction 
between them and the other 
inhabitants of Greece, 66 ; 
Achaian race in Crete, 67 ; 
closely related to the Pelopids, 
161 ; the Achaian £ succumbs 
to the half-savage Heraclid/ 
174. 

Achaiic Argos, 48. 
Achaiis, force of the word, 46 
et seq. 

Achilles, lands occupied by his 
contingent, 110 ; his power- 
ful denunciation of falsehood, 
389"; and elevation of charac- 
ter, 389 ; his singular courtesy, 
395, 425 ; general survey of 
his character in Homer, 500- 
502. 

Actoridai, house of the, 137. 

Adultery, crime of, held in ab- 
horrence, 398; fine imposed 
upon the adulterer, 414. 

Advent of our Lord, previous 
history a preparation for that 
event, 377. 

JEneas and the title 'Anax An- 
dron/ 162 ; case of his birth, 
372. 

Agamemnon as Anax Andron, 
155 ; account of his sceptre, 
156 ; and of his extraction, 



157 ; unjust and rapacious, 
393 ; his threat in regard to 
Briseis, 411 ; his suzerainty 
over other princes, 420 ; his 
succession hereditary, 427. See 
Polity, Kings, &c. Descrip- 
tion of Agamemnon in Homer, 
506. 

A'idoneus, 253 ; obscurity of his 
figure, 253 ; particulars con- 
cerning, 254, 255 ; Homeric 
adjustment regarding the an- 
terior and the present Olym- 
pian dynasty, 257. 

Aiguptioi, the, visited by Mene- 
laos, 126. See also Egypt. 

Aiguptos, an Ithacan noble, 126. 

Aiolids, the question of their 
Phoenician origin discussed, 
136. 

Aiolos, a Phoenician, 140 ; force 
and derivation of the name, 
141. 

Ajax, 508. 

Anax Andron, 151 ; to whom 
applied, with facts relating to 
the phrase, 153 ; the term dis- 
appears from use after Homer, 
155 ; title applied to Aga- 
memnon, 155 ; to Anchises 
and JEneas, 163 ; title a sign 
of affinity between the Greeks 
and the Trojans, 166 ; ap- 
plied to Augeias, 167 ; to Eu- 
phetes, 170 ; to Eumelos, 171 ; 
a title probably drawn from a 
more patriarchal state of so- 



548 



INDEX. 



ciety, 173 ; what it specially 
denoted was some primitive 
chiefship or superiority, 174. 

Anchises and the title ' Anax 
Andron/ 162. 

Animal-worship, 361 ; oxen of 
the sun, 361 ; immortal horses, 
362 ; assumption of the forms 
of birds by deities, 362 ; animal 
sacrifice, 363. 

Anthropomorphism, Zeus the 
type of, 234 ; the principle of 
Greek religion, 363. 

Aphrodite, 313 ; her position, and 
circumstances concerning her, 
313 ; superintends marriage in 
its physical side, 314, 315 ; re- 
ferable to the mythology of As- 
syria, 317. 

Apollo, dignity of, 271 ; uniform 
identity of his will with that 
of Zeus, 275 ; the defender 
and deliverer, 276. See also 
Athene and Apollo. 

Appellatives, the Three Great, 
31 ; evidence of chronological 
succession among, 34. 

Approximation, modes of, be- 
tween the divine and the hu- 
man- nature, 363. 

Arcadians, the Swiss of Greece, 
81. 

Ares, 296 ; ' compound of deity 
and brute/ 296 ; the repre- 
sentative of animal force, 296 ; 
Homeric evidence concerning, 
298, 299 ; probably of Pelas- 
gian and elemental origin, 300. 

Argos, significance of the name, 
34 ; Achaiic Argos, 48 ; Iasian 
Argos, 49 ; name applied to 
three settlements, 50 ; a plain 
country, 51 ; put sometimes 
for Greece at large, 51 ; re- 
capitulation of its four uses, 
52 ; used adjectively, 54 ; force 
of the word ( Argeioi,' 35 ; 
poetic and archaic name, 43 ; 
its possible local use, 45. 

Army, 432 et seq. ; ranks trace- 
able in, 433 ; privates of, 433 ; 
nature of the arms employed, 
433 ; two modes of fighting, 
434. 



Art, works of, obtained from 
Phoenicia, 124 ; idea of art in 
Homer, 525 ; works of art, 525 ; 
materials thereof, 526 ; range 
of, 526 ; seat of art, 523 ; Egyp- 
tian and Assyrian schools of, 
529. 

Artemis, 305 ; a reflection of 
Apollo, 305 ; relation of to the 
elemental system, 306, 307; 
great inferiority of to Apollo, 
309 ; ministry of death, 320 ; 
rival of Aphrodite in matter of 
beauty, 320. 

Assemblies, Homeric, 432 ; centre 
of the life of the community, 
438 ; opposing factions in the, 
439 ; Trojan Assembly, 469. 

Ate, the temptress, 356 ; eldest 
daughter of Zeus, 357 ; re- 
semblance between this Greek 
allegory and the representation 
of the Serpent in Scripture, 
357 ; examples of her agency, 
358. ^ 

Athene, highest intelligence of 
Olympian deities, 211 ; relation 
of rank between Here and 
her, 270. 

Athene and Apollo, 268 ; their 
position explained by Hebrew 
tradition, 269 ; their sanctitas 
superior to that of Zeus, 272 ; 
never deceived or put to 
shame, 273 ; epithet ' dear ' 
applied by Zeus to them, 274. 

Augeias, and the title ' Anax 
Andron,' 167. 

Autochthonism, or birth from 
the soil, 33. 

B. 

Balance of forces, political, 
unknown to Homer, 419. 

Basileus, as a designation of dig- 
nity, 152 ; use of the term in 
the Odyssey, 445. See King, 
Polity, &c. 

Beauty, admiration of the poet 
for, 402 ; moral purity of the 
idea, 402; Idea of Beauty in 
Homer, 521. 

Blood, recognition of the tie of, 402 . 



INDEX. 



549 



Boule, or Council, 434. 
Briareus, 839. 
Briseis, 409, 410. 

C. 

Calypso, situation of the island 
of, 486. 

Cannibalism, 399. 

Catalogues, the, 471-474. 

' Chorizontes 5 — those who main- 
tain a separate authorship — 14 
et seq. 

Chruses, 64. 

Color, sense of in Homer, 544. 
Concubinage of rare occurrence, 
411. 

Conscience, voice of recognized, 
386. 

Courtesy, fine example of in 
Achilles, 395, 425. 

Crete, Pelasgian character of its 
population, 90 ; races inhabit- 
ing, 90 ; base of Achaian war- 
like effort against Egypt, 146. 



D. 

Danaos, 40 et seq. ; Danae, 40 ; 
Danaoi, 36 ; military character 
of the epithets applied to, 36 ; 
probable conclusions respect- 
ing the name, 42. 

Data for constructing Map of 
the ' Outer Geography/ 482. 

Date of Homer, 3 ; of the fall of 
Troy, 3. 

Debate, Homeric, 437. 

Delicacy of Homer, 403. 

Demeter, 262 ; epithets and Ho- 
meric evidence, 263 et seq.; 
etymology of, 266 ; a figure 
partly Hellenized, partly Pe- 
lasgian, 266. 

Demioergoi, the, 443. 

Demodocos, 2, 5. 

Destiny, binding efficacy of, 350. 
See Fate. 

Diomed, Homer's description of, 
508 ; exchange of arms with 
Glaucos, 402. 

Dione, 266 ; of the" family of 
Nature Powers, 267. 



Dionusos, 319 ; slight and ob- 
scure traditions concerning, 
319 ; recency of his worship, 
321 ; Dionusian orgies, 322 ; 
within the circle of Phoenician 
traditions, 322. 

Distances, Homer's measures of, 
483. 

Doom, ministers of, 349, 358. 
Dorian conquest, effect of, 4. 

E. 

Egypt, somewhat narrow di- 
rect notices of in the Poems, 
126; Egyptian Thebes, 126; 
drug presented to Helen, 126 ; 
Egyptians, 127 etseq. ; Egyptian 
chronology, 143 ; Achaian in- 
vasion of Egypt, 146 ; zenith 
of the Egyptian power, 147. 

Elysian Plain, the, 374. 

Ephure, 169. 

Erinues, 218, 350 ; action and 
functions of, 352 et seq. ; deri- 
vation of the name, 356. 

Ethics of the Heroic Age, 381 ; 
connection between duty and 
religious belief and reverence, 
384. 

Eumelos, 171. 

Euphetes, 270. 

F. 

Eate or Doom, 358 ; explana- 
tion of the words (Ker, Moira, 
&c.) expressing this idea, 358- 
361. 

Filiation, Divine, 367. 
Food, 129. 

Fraud, element of in Homer, 
212 ; tenderness for fraud the 
weakest point in Homer, 388 ; 
case of Diomed and the oxen 
of Glaucos, 389. 

Future State, Homeric view of, 
373 ; its threefold division, 
374. 

G. 

Genealogies of the Cata- 
logue, 472. 
Geography of Homer, 471 ; Ho- 



550 



INDEX. 



meric division of the Greek 
territory, 472 ; Geography of 
the Plain of Troy, 474 ; ' Outer 
Geography/ 479 ; data for con- 
structing an Homeric Map of 
the Outer Geography, 482. 
Gods, classification of, 218, 219. 
See also the deities under their 
several headings. Consult also 
Religion. 

Greek life in the Heroic Age, 
sketch of, 405. 

Greeks of the Iliad, their ordi- 
nary appellations, 33 ; moral 
character of the Homeric 
Greeks, 381. 

H. 

Hebe, 327 ; office exclusively 
Olympian, 328 ; probably a 
purely ideal conception, 328. 

Hebrew idea of a Deliverer re- 
flected in Homer, 210 ; story 
of Joseph and the Greek le- 
gend of Bellerophon, 203 ; 
concerning the punishment of 
Rebellious Powers, 349 ; con- 
cerning the Serpent and the 
Greek Ate, 357. 

Hebrew traditions concerning 
the Messiah, 205, 206. 

Hector, 513-516. 

Helen, 509-513. 

Helios, a person, 323; appears 
with more marked effect in 
the Odyssey rather than in the 
Iliad, 323; oxen of the Sun, 
324; an Eastern god, incor- 
poration of the Sun with the 
Trojan Apollo, 325. 

Hellas, 110 ; its derivatives, 110. 

Hephaistos, character, functions, 
and instances of his operation, 
291 et seq. 

Heracles, character of, 383. 

Here, 236-243 et passim. 

Hermes, 301 ; secondary part 
played by, 301 ; functions 
point to a Phoenician source, 
303 ; an agent rather than a 
mere messenger, 304; con- 
nected with the East by 
Welcker, 305. 



Hesiod and Homer, comparative 
antiquity of, 27 ; contrast be- 
tween the theologies of, 177. 

Homer, influence of his works, 
1 ; his blindness, 2 ; date at 
which he lived, 3 ; place of his 
birth and residence, 6 ; his 
poetry historic, 7 ; historic also 
with regard to his chief events 
and persons, 7 ; theurgy of his 
Poems self-subsistent, 9 ; spe- 
cial feature of his Poems in 
the delineation of personal 
character, 10, 11 ; obscurity re- 
specting the Iliad and Odyssey, 
12 ; discussion of the question 
of the unity of his Poems, 13 
et seq. Consult also Iliad, and 
cognate headings. Text of the 
Poems, 23; plots, characters, 
and similes of the Poems, 495. 

Homicide, 387. 

Houses, pedigree of the ancient 

Greek, 368. 
Hymns, the Homeric, discussed, 

12; their inferiority, 13. 



I. 

Iliad, influence of on modern 
life, 1 ; plot of compared with 
the plot of the Odyssey, 17 ; 
careful preservation of the text, 
23 ; plot of, 496 ; main steps of 
his action, 497. See various 
headings : Homer, Sense of 
Beauty in Homer, Use of Num- 
ber, &c. &c. 

Ionians, 81, 85 et seq. 

Iris, 332; her office, 333; the 
rainbow, 334 ; instances of her 
action, 334 et seq. 



J. 

Justice, sense of, 393. 



K. 

Kadmos, 123 ; etymology of his 
name, 136. 



INDEX. 



551 



Kephallenes, 115. 

Kimmeria, derivation of the 
name, 494. 

King of kings, or Suzerain, the 
position of Agamemnon, 433. 

Kings, Homeric, personal reve- 
rence for, 418 ; a distinct class, 
420 ; stand in a special relation 
to deity, 421 ; personal vigor of, 
422 ; skill in the games, 423 ; 
gifts of music and song, 424 ; 
manual employments of, 424; 
Judge, General, and Priest, 
424 ; succession of hereditary, 
426 ; testimony of the Olym- 
pian arrangements to the higher 
dignity and authority of the 
elder brother, 428 ; King as 
priest, 428; Judge, 429; as a 
great proprietor, 430; hospi- 
tality expected from, 431 ; 
might obtain private property, 
431 ; lax law of kingly succes- 
sion in Troy, 466, 467. 

Kudones, of Pelasgian origin, 90. 



L. 

Larisse, 77, 78. 

'Law/ no word for in Homer, 
446 ; substitutes for, 447 ; five- 
fold basis of society, 452. 

Leleges, who, 91. 

Leto, 259; epithets ascribed to 
her, 259; her action circum- 
scribed, 259; high ascriptions 
of her dignity, 260 ; etymology 
of her name, 261 ; a record of 
the Hebrew tradition regard- 
ing the Deliverer, 262. 

Logos, the, 210. 



M. 

Marriage. No clear instance of 
a married deity, save Zeus, 
216 ; Homeric marriage, 409- 
415 ; strictness of the law con- 
cerning, 410; restraints im- 
posed upon, 412. 

Medium of exchange, 450. 

Memnon, an Egyptian, 149. 



Menelaos. See Helen, Paris, 

Marriage. 
Messiah, The, Hebrew tradition 

respecting, 205 ; the Deliverer, 

210. 

Metals in Homer, 533; those 
used in the shield, 533; Homer 
ignorant of the fusing or cast- 
ing of metals, 535; chalcos, 
535 ; kuanos, 537 ; list and 
value of the metals, 538. 

Minos, his Phoenician character, 
120 et seq. 

Moderation, the base of a model 
man in Homer, 396. 

Music probably introduced by 
the Phoenicians, 134. 

Myrmidons, of Hellenic and 
Achaian race, 106. 



N. 

Names applied to the Greeks 
of the Iliad, 33 ; derivation of 
national or tribal names, 37 ; 
derivation of names of coun- 
tries and places, 53 ; names, 
Greek and Trojan, 104; local 
concatenation of names of 
places, 118. 

Nature, modes of approximation 
between the divine and the 
human, 363 ; four main chan- 
nels of approach, 373. 

Nature Powers, 346 ; communi- 
cation of the human Dead with, 
376 ; worshipped in Troas, 456. 
See Religion. 

Nemesis, 386. 

Nereus, the sea-god, 245, 347. 
Nestor, 9, 35, 436 ; his age, 543. 
Number, use of in Homer, 540- 

544. 
Nymphs, 348. 



O. 

Oath, peculiar importance of, 
446. 

Odysseus, 68; Phoenician ele- 
ment in his fictions, 125, 127 ; 
notices concerning, 128, 146, 



552 



INDEX. 



323, 324 ; his characteristic 
virtue of patience, 392; his 
self-command, 396 ; his filial 
sentiment towards Laertes, 401, 
403, 422, 424 ; his profound re- 
finement, 425 ; eloquence of, 
436 ; state of society in Ithaca, 
445 ; several stages of the voy- 
age of Odysseus, 488 ; Homer's 
portraiture of Odysseus, 502. 

Odyssey. See other headings : 
Homer, Chorizontes, Iliad, &c. 
Plot of the Odyssey character- 
ized, 496. 

Olympian system, 176, 346 ; clas- 
sification of various preternat- 
ural personages, 346 et seq. : 
see Religion, Approximation, Ani- 
mal- Worship, Future State : Re- 
sults of the Olympian system, 
377 ; its character, 378. 

Oratory, Homeric, 437. 

' Outer Geography/ the, 479 ; 
data for constructing map of, 
482. 

P. 

Paiaist, hymn to Apollo, 332. 

Paieon, Egyptians of the race of, 
125, 330; singular relation be- 
tween Paieon and Apollo, 332. 

Panachaioi, 70. 

Panhellenes, force of the word, 
114. 

Parents and children, profound 
natural attachment between, 
400. 

Paris, 383, 462; Homer's char- 
acter of, 510-513. 

Patience, exalted view of, in the 
Homeric ethics, 392. 

Pelasgians, epithet ' dioi,' 76 ; di- 
rect notices concerning, 73- 
78 ; other heads of Homeric 
evidence relating to them, 78 
et seq. ; etymology of the name, 
94 ; words common to the 
Greek and Latin languages are 
Pelasgian, 96 ; lists of these 
words, 97 et seq.; extra-Ho- 
meric evidence touching the 
wide extension of the Pelasgoi, 
107. 



Pelasgicos, the archaic name of 
Zeus, 74. 

Penelope. See Odysseus. 

Persephone, 311 ; epithets applied 
to her, 311 ; co-ruler with A'i- 
doneus, 312 ; representative of 
the old Pelasgian tradition, 312 ; 
etymology of, 312. 

Phaiakes, people of Scherie (Cor- 
fu), were Phoenicians, 133. 

Phoenicians (the) and the Egypt- 
ians, 119; Minos a Phoenician, 
120; Kadmos, Daidalos, 123; 
Phoenician works of art, 124 ; 
Greeks dependent on Phoeni- 
cians for intercourse with the 
outer world, 126 ; points of 
contrast between the Phoeni- 
cian and Hellenic world, 129 ; 
meaning of the word 'Phoeni- 
cia' in its widest sense, 130; 
building, use of hewn stone, 
&c, a Phoenician art, 132 ; art 
of music probably introduced 
by the Phoenicians, 134 ; Phoe- 
nicianism of the Aiolids, 138 ; 
some Phoenician personages 
also called Sidonian, 144 ; in- 
tercourse of the Phoenicians 
with the Jews, 202; tales of 
the Odyssey having a Phoe- 
nician origin, 203 ; Poseidon 
a Phoenician god, 250; Phoe- 
nicians brought into Greece 
the Assyrian planetary wor- 
ship, 315; dependence of the 
Greeks on the Phoenicians for 
metals, 537. See also Voyage 
of Odysseus and Art. 

Phthie, significance of the terri- 
torial name, 112. 

Physics of Homer, 525-528. 

Plots, characters, and similes of 
the Poems, 495. 

Polity of the Heroic Age, 417 ; 
resemblance between the Ho- 
meric and our own ideas, 417 ; 
personal reverence for sover- 
eigns, 418 ; qualifications pre- 
venting excesses, 418; no 'bal- 
ance of forces,' 419 ; reciprocal 
duty, 419 ; Homeric kings, 420 ; 
leading political ideas exhib- 
ited in the Poems, 452. See 



INDEX. 



553 



also Kings, Army, Assembly, \ 
Council. 
Polygamy of Priam, 465. 

Poseidon, 243 ; his character, ! 
248 ; not an elemental deity, 
245 ; prayer how addressed to 
Mm, 246 ; functions of, 247 ; 
Greek legends respecting, 248 ; j 
instances of his action, 249 ; i 
his working supremacy in the 
Odyssey, 250 ; prevalence of ! 
his worship among the Phoe- 
nicians, 251 ; special attributes, 
252. 

Priam, 465 ; his sons, 466 ; suze- 
rainty over subordinate dis- 
tricts, 468. 

Priests, no professional, 428 ; 
king as priest, 428, 429 ; the 
Trojan priesthood, 460. 

Proitos, 131. 

K. 

Rainbow in Scripture and in 
Homer, 210. 

Rebellious Powers, the, 349. 

Recensions (state) of Homer, 23. 

Recitations (state) of the Ho- 
meric poems, 22. 

Religion of Greece, its varie- 
gated aspect, 178 ; conflict of 
religions, and conflict between 
Nature-worship and the Ho- 
meric system, 179 ; the two 
religions : instances of amalga- 
mation or expulsion of deities, 
180 ; character of the Olym- 
pian system, 181 ; its debase- 
ment, 182 ; devoid, of author- 
ity, 183 ; had no priesthood, 
183 ; its prevailing character 
humanitarian, 184 ; influence 
of the popular and of the philo- 
sophic mind upon the system, 
184 ; two simultaneous pro- 
cesses of a speculative as- 
cent and a practical decline, 
186 ; Plato's reproaches against 
Homer's treatment of the gods 
baseless, 187 ; principal mate- 
rials of the Homeric religion, 
188 ; Homer's mode of dealing 
with the elder Nature Powers, 



189 ; vestiges of the earlier sys- 
tem, 191 ; relation between the 
older and the younger schemes, 
194 ; Homeric mythology to 
be severed also from the Roman 
mythology and the mythology 
of classical Greece, 195 ; the 
polity of the system framed on 
the human model, 195 ; hete- 
rogeneity discernible among 
members of the Olympian 
court, 196 et seg. ; classification 
of the Olympian personages, 
200 ; limitations and liabilities 
among the gods, 201 ; marked 
correspondence between certain 
legends and the Hebrew tradi- 
tions conveyed in the books of 
Scripture, 202 ; Hebrew tradi- 
tion respecting the Messiah, 
205, 206 ; origin of Pagan re- 
ligions : opinions of St. Paul, 
Eusebius, and others, 206 ; ma- 
chinery of the Homeric poems, 
207 ; idea, in Homer, of a De- 
liverer and tradition of an Evil 
Being, 210 ; grand distinction 
between Homeric and later sys- 
toms, 214 ; collective and indi- 
vidual action of the gods, 214 ; 
distinction between the Greek 
and Trojan religions, 456. See 
Olympian system, and the deities 
under their several designa- 
tions. 

Resemblances and differences be- 
tween the Greeks and the Tro- 
jans, 455. 

Reverence, the formative idea of 
Greek society, 453 ; reverence 
for parents, for kings, for the 
poor, &c, 454. 

River, Homer's notion of a great 
circumfluent (Okeanos), 493. 

River-worship, 192. See Religion ; 
also Nature-worship. 



S. 

Sacrifices, animal, 363. 
Sanscrit, names of Hellenic dei- 
ties derivable from, 345 note. 
Scherie (Corfu), 70. 



554 



INDEX. 



Sellos, Selloi, explanation of the 

words, 116. 
Sidon, 144. 

Similes of the Poems, 513-521. 
Sin, 390. 

Sketch of Greek life in the Heroic 
age, 405. 

Slavery, not a prominent feature 
of Greek society in Homer, 
448 ; war and kidnapping the 
two sources for supplying 
slaves, 448 ; mitigated char- 
acter of Homeric slavery, 449. 

Society, five-fold basis of, 449. 

Sun. See Helios. Oxen of the 
sun, 188, 323. 



T. 

Tartaros, 376. 

Text of the Poems carefully pre- 
served, 23. 

Thebes, the, of Kadmos, 124; 
Egyptian Thebes, 126. 

Themis, 329 ; deification of an 
impersonated idea, 330 ; Hahn's 
derivation of the word, 330. 

Thetis, 336 ; of elemental origin, 
336 ; her rank, 338 ; marriage 
to Peleus, 338 ; principal par- 
ticulars concerning her, 342; 
epithets applied to her, 344 ; 
character of the later traditions 
concerning, 344. 

Tis, the Greek Public Opinion, 
441 ; primary ancestor of the 
famous Greek Chorus, 442 ; 

Tradition.- See Hebrew Tradition. 

Trinity, 210 ; and the trident of 
Poseidon, 251, 252. 

Trojans, religious system of the, 
459 et seq. ; excelled the Greeks 
in religious observance, 462 ; 
inferior to the Greeks in mo- 



rality, 462; polygamy of Priam, 
465; lax succession of their 
kings, 465 ; Trojan Assembly, 
469. 

Troy, Geography of the Plain 
of, 474-479. 



U. 

Underworld, the, 375. 
Unity of authorship, 14. 



V. 

Value, measure of, in Homer, 

538-540. 
Voyage of Odysseus, several 

stages of the, 488. 



W. 

' Will and Ought,' 217, 350, 
351. 

Wolf, Professor, his argument, 14. 

Woman, her position, 409 ; mar- 
riage, 409-415 ; whether ca- 
pable of political sovereignty, 
415; domestic employment of, 
415, 416. 

Z. 

Zetjs, 221 ; formed in many points 
upon the conception of the One 
and Supreme God, 221 ; his five 
capacities, his epithets and ver- 
bal ascriptions, 222 ; the Pelas- 
gian Zeus, 223 ; the Divine 
Zeus, 225 ; the Olympian Zeus 
and Lord of Air, 228, 229 ; Zeus, 
the type of anthropomorphism, 
234. 



Cambridge : Printed by Jobn Wilson and Son. 



